Comparison Of Things Fall Apart And Flame In The Mist
Books cover many topics, so many that they often include details on the same topics. Examples of this can be found in the books Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh. Things Fall Apart is a book about the fictional life of Okonkwo in Africa as Europeans colonized the area. Flame in the Mist is about Mariko, the daughter of a prominent samurai in feudal Japan and the events around her. These two books share details on the subject of differences between women and men in their societies, however, the societies do not always agree nor do the main characters’ opinions match. To start with, these books have similar places for women in their two societies. Women are below the status of the men in their societies.
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Okonkwo, the main character from TFA, acknowledges that women are considered less in their society in a roundabout way. “‘She should have been a boy‘ he thought as he looked at his ten year old daughter.” (Achebe, 55). He sees many of the things he values in his daughter Ezinma, yet rather than be content with this he despairs that she was not a boy. He does this as he feels that she is wasted as a girl and not a boy; that she would be better off as a boy. It’s different in FinM, in TFA while Okonkwo wishes that Ezinma were a boy, nothing comes of it. In FinM one of the main plot points is that the main character, Mariko, gets fed up with how she is treated as a girl. “She gathered her hair in one hand, near the nape of her neck… Mariko sliced through the gathered strands in one blow.” (Ahdieh, 37). She then goes on to masquerade as a man through the end of the book, though the series is unfinished. Unlike Okonkwo, clear action is taken by Mariko based on her mindset towards the status differences between men and women in her world. The reason for this difference is likely due to their genders, Okonkwo being a man and Mariko a woman. While Mariko is deeply troubled by her position as a woman, her feelings eventually boiling over, Okonkwo is a man and therefore has no problem with the system personally and simply weakly wishes that his daughter were his son. They both acknowledge that there are societal differences between men and women though only one of them chose to act on the
Okonkwo, the main character from TFA, acknowledges that women are considered less in their society in a roundabout way. “‘She should have been a boy‘ he thought as he looked at his ten year old daughter.” (Achebe, 55). He sees many of the things he values in his daughter Ezinma, yet rather than be content with this he despairs that she was not a boy. He does this as he feels that she is wasted as a girl and not a boy; that she would be better off as a boy. It’s different in FinM, in TFA while Okonkwo wishes that Ezinma were a boy, nothing comes of it. In FinM one of the main plot points is that the main character, Mariko, gets fed up with how she is treated as a girl. “She gathered her hair in one hand, near the nape of her neck… Mariko sliced through the gathered strands in one blow.” (Ahdieh, 37). She then goes on to masquerade as a man through the end of the book, though the series is unfinished. Unlike Okonkwo, clear action is taken by Mariko based on her mindset towards the status differences between men and women in her world. The reason for this difference is likely due to their genders, Okonkwo being a man and Mariko a woman. While Mariko is deeply troubled by her position as a woman, her feelings eventually boiling over, Okonkwo is a man and therefore has no problem with the system personally and simply weakly wishes that his daughter were his son. They both acknowledge that there are societal differences between men and women though only one of them chose to act on the