have been happier." (66) Okonkwo thought Ezinma had "the right spirit"(66) to be a man because she was strong and loyal. The society that Chinua Achebe described in his book, Things Fall Apart, is also based on agriculture. The major crop the Ibo tribe grew was the yam, which was said to be the symbol of virility. The coco-yam, which was a smaller size and had a lesser value than other yams, was regarded as female. The "yam also stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another is a very great man indeed" (33). To produce a great harvest, the Ibo farmer would have needed a lot of help. The women ran most of the workforce by farming, tending animals, and raising the children so that they could help out on the farms. "The yam demanded hard work and constant attentionfrom cock-crow till the chickens went back to roost.The young tendrils were protected from the earth-heatwith rings of sisal leaves. As the rains becameheavier, the women planted maize, melons, and beansbetween the yam mounds. The yams were then staked,first with little sticks and later with tall big treebranches. The women weeded the farm three times atdefinite period in the life of the yams, neither earlynor late" (33). Here, the women can be compared to slaves because they did most of the work on the farms, but were not seen as important, or given any credit. They were forced to do hard work for long periods of time, or they were punished.Women had no freedom and no choice in this androcentric society. Their husbands told them what to do, and if they did not do it, they were beat.. The tribe believed that "no matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and children (and especially his women) he was not really a man"(53). The novel tells of two instances when Okonkwo beats one of his wives in order to demonstrate authority if she disobeyed his command. One of these instances is when she does not come h...
