We live in a man’s world. Male dominated and controlled societies. It could be that it has been a cultural tradition, the man was given a more powerful and influential role in the community than women and it takes a long time for traditions to wear down. Or it could be the question of gender bias, the belief that man is stronger and wiser, thus the obvious choice for a leader. In “Girls at War” by Chinua Achebe and “The Collector of Treasures” by Bessie Head, the destructive nature of a patriarchal society is explored through the narrative voice and the use of irony.
In “Girls at War”, Achebe uses a third-person and heterodiegetic narrator. Yet, the voice is from a male perspective. The narrative focuses on the character Reginald Nwankwo and his thoughts and actions. This perspective doesn’t directly tell about the harm of male dominance, instead it is up to the reader to interpret the text and notice the downfalls. Reginald Nwankwo compares female involvement in the war to children pretending to be soldiers. “He didn’t doubt that the girls and women took themselves seriously, they obviously did.
But so did the little kids who marched up and down the streets at the time drilling with sticks and wearing their mothers’ soup bowls for steel helmets. ” (2-3).
The women in this story are criticized by the men for being simple and for being what men have made them into, for their own pleasure. Nwankwo clearly shows his ambivalence in this area when he muses that, “He might just as well slept with a prostitute… It was clear as daylight to him now that she was kept by some army officer. What a terrible transformation… ” (9).
The Essay on Men And Women Are Different
The fact that men and women are different is well known. Some of these differences are constant and some are not; some have changed in the past and some are about to change in the future. While some physical differences are obvious, some of them are controversial; in addition, psychological and cognitive differences are always divisive. Men are considered to be physically stronger than women. ...
He reflects on the problem without the realizing his part in it. The issues with patriarchy are clearly discussed in Bessie Head’s, “The Collector of Treasures”. This short story is also from a third-person, heterodiegetic perspective, but the narrative voice is female and directly confronts the problem. The character, Dikeledi, voices her opinion about the kind of male that runs rampant in their society. One that, “created such misery and chaos that he could be broadly damned as evil” (162).
Dikeledi’s husband Garesego Mokopi is a perfect example an abuse of power and control.
He doesn’t care for his wife but can’t handle the thought, “that another man had a stake in his hen-pen” (169), when he learns that Dikeledi’s neighbour, Paul, has been trading household goods for her services, only believing that Paul would only do so, “for women they fuck” (169).
These stories are both examples of how a male dominated relationship or society disregards the needs of the women. Irony is used profusely in both, “The Collector of Treasures” by Bessie Head and “Girls at War” by Chinua Achebe, to reveal the issues that arise in a male dominated society.
In “Girls at War”, it is ironic that Nwankwo is the one to survive at the end while Gladys is killed. Being a leader Nwankwo only tried to protect himself, while Gladys heroically tried to save the child soldier. There is an abundance of irony in the fact that Nwankwo openly criticizes girls and their shopping for, “shoes, wigs, pants, bras, cosmetics and what have you… ”(7), yet it is exactly what he expects women to do. He wants Gladys to become, “the girl in khaki jeans that searched him at the checkpoint.. ” (7), but when he sees her made up in a, “high-tinted wig and a very expensive skirt and a low-cut blouse. ” (4), he calls her a, “beauty queen” (4).
The situational irony in, “The Collector of Treasures”, is clearly shown through how Dikeledi, “found gold amidst the ash” (161) and freedom in prison but when she was legally free she felt bound by her husband, Garesego. In prison, she is no longer a slave to men, instead, “male prisoners… handed each woman a plate of porridge and a mug of black tea… ” (159), getting served by men.
The Essay on Suffering of Woman Protagonist in Male Hegemony Society Within The Yellow Wallpaper
Women role in a society has always been changing since prehistoric times so it could not be difined accuratly. However there always has been a stereotype male figure in the society which nearly has not altered since the very first. Besides the women role also differed between religions and civilisations. For instance in early Native American Tribes women were something deified , this however ...
In conclusion, the dangers of male dominance are clearly illustrated in Bessie Head’s, “The Collector of Treasures” and Chinua Achebe’s, “Girls at War”, through the use of the narrative voice and irony. Both texts display the dissatisfaction of both men and women in a patriarchal society and the breakdown of relationship it brings with it. The struggle for equality, love and purpose is clearly shown through the women in the stories, while the men are shown as selfish and shallow in their dominance.
