The feminist nature of the novel is established earlier in the novel, wherein the novel begins with the following passage:
Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all the things they don't want to remember, and remember all the things they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
This passage from the novel sets the mood and primary thesis of Hurston's novel. Through the imagery of ships, the author elucidates her own meaning of what it is like to dream when you are a man, and when you are a woman, a member of the oppressed class. This passage conveys the hard truth that the women sector experiences everyday in her own society: she, evidently, does not have any choice in controlling her own life, while men are free to do what they want, aspire things that women equally deserve. By stating that life for women is a process wherein they "forget things they don't want to remember and remember all the things they don't want to forget," Hurston further emphasizes the lack of choice and decision of the women sector in the society, perpetuating her dependency on men, which also dominate and control the structures and institutions of society.
A similar depiction of women oppression is apparent in Achebe's "Things fall apart," wherein it is already explicit to the reader that the social environment in which the novel was set is a highly patriarchal society and culture, where men dominate and lead over women and children. Women suppression in the novel can be divided into two categories, depending on the character or event in which such suppression happens. In the novel, women suppression is evident through: (a) practices and beliefs of Umuofia and (b) Okonkwo's attitude and behavior (treatment) of women.
Many social customs and traditions held important in Umuofia explicitly shows the low regard given to women in the said village. One evidence is the use of agbala as a derogatory term to illustrate a man's effeminate nature, especially if he had acquired no titles to his name. Discrimination against women also pervades even the laws of African communities. Inadvertent killing was considered a "female" crime, as opposed to premeditated killing, which is identified as a "male" crime. Categorizing crimes as either male or female shows how laws, considered to be regulations and rules followed by people...
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