Journal- April 3, 2003
Does our society have feminine and masculine stories? Discuss, and then relate to the events in Things Fall Apart
I think that feminine and masculine stories have both existed since the time men and women coexisted and lived together. In our society today, stories do have distinctions in them based on gender.
We usually associate stories like fairy tales and minor legends to children but we associate them to women because mother’s usually read these types of stories to their offspring, so they may be considered as feminine. The ways feminine stories are related are unique in a way as they usually more emotional and soft. The stories deal more with problems, experiences, and just anything under the sun that may provide a moral dilemma that has to be resolved to possibly teach a lesson about life.
Meanwhile, masculine stories are also unique in many sorts of ways. We can see some of the distinction of masculine stories from feminine stories when we watch action movies, where one will usually see the roughness and strength of men. Men’s stories usually deal with topics ranging from violence, adventure, and often sex. In these stories, the main characters are strong, heroic men who always emerge victorious in the end, and if one would notice, most of the characters are male. The thoughts and emotions of the male hero are usually subdued.
In Things Fall Apart, we do relate the above stated on the part where Okonkwo tells stories of bloodshed, courage, and violence to Ikemefuna and Nwoye. However, Nwoye’s attention or thinking is divided into his reflections of his mother’s stories on creation—legends concerning the earth, sky, rain, and the animals. Nwoye thinks about things that are rather gentle and passive which his father forbids and thinks as effeminate. Because of the pressure Nwoye received from his father, he tried so hard to subdue his thoughts that are connected to his mother’s stories when he was young that he considered as having a great impact on his life.
