The Image of Women in Chinua Adchebe’s Novels Things Fall Apart, No Longer At Ease and Arrow of God

This paper explores and discusses the image of women in Chinua Achebe’s novels: Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God. In Things Fall Apart (TFA), there is a great marginalization of women in Nigerian society. Although there are many tasks undertaken by women such as educating the children by narrating folk stories to them, upbringing their daughters, and serving as priestesses of gods (e.g. Chillo). The reader of such novels can effortlessly internalize the image of women in Chinua Achebe because it is very obvious. This Image has been improved through the development of the society in TFA. The citizens are ignorant, but are educated in the second novel No Longer at Ease. When a girl was asked to fulfill an application form and reaching to sex activities item, she wrote twice a week. It is the same case in Arrow of God, when Ezulu wants to send his son to the church in order to enable him to learn the lifestyle of the white This was evident when his mother asked him “Why do you send my son ?” and his a answer is that ” How does it concern you while I do with my son”. Regardless of his changeable Image from time to time, we have to acknowledge that Chinua Achebe, belittles, scorns, and underestimates women in his early and modern novels.

Keywords: Achebe, Nigerian, Scorn, Women, belittle, image