A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia

The issue of women’s rights and their contribution to society is one of the most pertinent debates that are taking place in the contemporary world. This is because a significant number of individuals have come to believe that women have been oppressed by male dominance for a long time and that it is time to ensure that their rights as individuals are respected. The achievement of this goal has the potential of making sure that there is the advancement of means through which women can become active participants in society while at the same time promoting gender equality. An important case concerning the rights of women in the contemporary world is that of Saudi Arabia; a country that has been vilified for years for denying women even the most basic of rights that are enjoyed by women elsewhere in the world. Madawi Al-Rasheed’s book A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics, and Religion in Saudi Arabia is an extremely important addition to the scholarship concerning the manner through which women are treated in this country. This is because it provides an important contribution to the manner through which the relationship between the state and religion can end up leading to the denial of rights to women in their societies. It also creates the advancement of a situation where there is a conversation concerning the status of women in Saudi Arabia and what can be done to ensure that there is the achievement of a larger debate concerning the association between gender and religion.

While Al-Rasheed does not dispute the central position that is played by religion, she suggests that gender stratification in Saudi Arabia has developed because of a complexity of factors not necessarily related to religion. The result has been that there has been considerable gender stratification in the country to such an extent that women are essentially seen as not equal to their male counterparts. She draws on her research concerning the history of Saudi Arabia to come to the conclusion that because the country was essentially a new state that lacked a unifying national narrative, its leadership turned to the Wahhabi religious revival as a means of fostering religious nationalism. A consequence of this situation was that rather than growing towards the achievement of social cohesion through the use of a nationalist narrative, the new political establishment sought to achieve legitimacy through the use of religious nationalism. This created a situation where religious nationalism ended up becoming distinct from religion because it enforced those characteristics that may have been considered too radical even from a religious standpoint. The religious nationalism of Saudi Arabia developed on a path identical to secular nationalism and this in such a way that promoted the creation of an environment where the state got involved in almost every aspect of life. Through this analysis, Al-Rasheed is able to develop a strong insight into the relationship between gender, politics, the state, and religion through a diversity of contexts. She shows the manner through which gender stratification in the country was legitimized through the association between these aspects of social life.

The religious nationalism present in Saudi Arabia is unique because it is one that has been combined with the intense modernization of the state since the beginning. A result of this situation is that modernization, which has been at the center of state formation since its earliest days, has worked hand in hand with religion in order to affect the gender system in a diversity of ways. One of the arguments that this author makes is that there have been considerable fluctuations to the manner through which the gender gap has been affected over the last fifty years. This gender gap has been maintained through state sponsored interventions rather than by religion. The trend has been legitimized through the manner in which the state has taken what appear to be contradictory stances on a diversity of issues concerning gender. One of the most prominent of these has been widespread encouragement of the education of women yet these individuals have ended up being restricted one they have completed their education. Furthermore, state sanctioned religious fatwas have been common in undermining the gains made by women in society because there has been a failure to consider the impact that that they might have on women who have been empowered by education. Moreover, the state has taken initiatives aimed at bolstering its international image through the promotion of a situation where there is an increase in the public presence of some women. Most of the latter have been those who support the status quo and are unlikely to challenge it, with other being kept in the background. Therefore, Al-Rasheed concluded that the abundant oil wealth of Saudi Arabia has been both an obstacle and facilitator of the participation of women in public life.

From the beginning of her book, Al-Rasheed issues a challenge against the simplistic and often contradictory image of women in Saudi Arabia. She challenges the assumption that the women in this country are either the veiled victims of an extremely patriarchal society or glamorous cosmopolitan entrepreneurs. These stereotypical representations have for the most part thrived because of a scarcity of literature of high quality concerning gender relations in Saudi Arabia and the actual lives of the women in this country. The second part of the book is instrumental in showing the manner through which the women in this country have reflected on the gender system and in some cases even ended up challenging it. Al-Rasheed makes an extremely sensitive and sophisticated analysis of interviews, literary texts, and personal exchanges with the women of Saudi Arabia in a bid to show that these individuals are not as homogenous as they seem. Instead, they are individuals of varying backgrounds and different convictions who live their own lives as independently as they would like. This statement poses a direct challenge to those individuals who believe that the women of Saudi Arabia are all victims of the religious nationalism that has dominated the country for decades. It shows that the women of this country are as independent of thought and as aware of the social circumstances around them as other women in the rest of the world. Al-Rasheed seeks to show that women in Saudi Arabia are free thinking beings who, because of their diversity in backgrounds, have different ways of thinking. She also advances the conviction that the women of this country are all independent in their thought, and are not all victims, as is often represented in Western media when it comes to its depiction of these women.

In her analysis, Al-Rasheed considers the diversity of viewpoints of women such as Raja al-Sani and Bariyya al-Bishr. The latter, who is a sociologist, has raised considerable objections concerning the negative manner though which women are treated in the country based on the restrictions that have been placed on them when it comes to becoming active participants in politics and economics. Al-Sani, on the other hand, is a woman that is well known for being a member of the second generation of Saudi women writers as seen through the success of her novel, Girls of Riyadh, which performed very well at a commercial level. Al-Rasheed therefore makes use of the opinions of these women to show that the women of Saudi Arabia are not as homogenous as is often thought and are instead independent individuals who also have very strong opinions concerning their society. In addition, she also considers the contributions that have been made by numerous other women in Saudi society, including those women who are strictly committed to the Islamic tradition and believe that it is essential to apply Islamic solutions to everyday problems. A result of this analysis is that Al-Rasheed comes up with a means through which to show the diversity of opinion that can be found among Saudi women, and this to such an extent that shows that they are extremely complex and sophisticated individuals rather than the oppressed and restricted individuals of Western narrative. The achievement of this goal cannot be underestimated because it promotes the idea that women in Saudi Arabia are mistresses of their own lives and have actually taken an active part in challenging the negative narrative concerning them.

Comparison of Brave New World and 1984

When one makes a study of Brave New World and 1984, one will come to the conclusion that both of these books are political satires which deal with the issues concerning the suppression of human nature in favor of one which is based on absolute control. One would say that both of these books depict the future world as a dreary place within which to live because the means through which the hums society interacts within them is very different from what is the case today. The interaction between human beings has traditionally been the means of transmitting knowledge from one generation to another, but this is not the case because in these societies, the fact that humans are able to interact does not mean that they learn anything from one another. A common depiction of these books is based on the belief that there will be less human interaction in the future, and this is seen in Brave New World, where because of a lack of serious human relationships, such as family, the issues are traditionally discussed more deeply do not take place and instead, there develops a type of society that is socially stagnant. While in the current world, the individuals get to have a better understanding of the issues being discussed because of regular interaction, in Brave New World, the opposite turns out to be true because of the fact that human beings, during the future age, are not conditioned to act independently of each other.

The events which are described in Brave New World, such as the establishment of a breeding program involving different castes of human beings, is not similar to those in 1984. This is because of the fact that in the latter, human beings, while being dominated by a single party whose purpose is to have absolute control of the society, has not made any attempt to alter humans physically. The main procedure used in gaining the absolute control and devotion among human beings is through the rewriting in history so that it is in the favor of the ruling party’s policies and objectives. Because the sources of history in the state described in 1984, known as Oceania, are either vague or scarce in content, it creates a situation where individuals get only a shallow understanding of the subject matter. In 1984, it is seen that because of the destruction of history, knowledge has become static, not being able to grow as it should. In both of these books, those people who possess knowledge or items that contain knowledge of the independent human nature of the past are completely ostracized from society or are put to death because of their perceived threat to the societal order. This makes it extremely difficult for knowledge to be transmitted and the lack of this knowledge has made the people in the societies described in the books disillusioned with life. This is especially true in Brave New World, where individuals have been conditioned by the ruling elite, to consume a drug known as soma, which is a hallucinogen used to ensure that they do not worry about their troubles.

The theme of control is prevalent in both Brave New World and 1984, and this is based on the need for the ruling elite to retain their power in what they consider to be the ideal state. Apart from working towards the destruction of all knowledge that concerns the past of human beings, they also adopt diverse methods to ensure that they have absolute control over the human society so that there are no rebellions. In Brave New World, there develops a caste system where human beings are no longer born in the natural way and are instead developed in laboratories. These are altered during their development so that they can best suit the purposes of the different castes to which they are assigned, with the higher castes being developed with such characteristics as intelligence while the lower castes are purposely given less intelligence so that they can work towards serving the interests of the higher castes. Because of their synthetic development, the lower castes of the society, who form the majority of the population in Brave New World, is not equipped to deal with the issues of day to day life and they have instead become artificial. It is possible that when Aldous Huxley was writing his book, he felt that the latter was the likely scenario that would face the world if there were no sources of human history from which people could get the knowledge and wisdom that they could use to make their lives more meaningful. In addition, it is possible that he believed that the intellectual development of the human race would be brought to a standstill because intelligent thought is often found in those instruments that perpetuate human history.

In 1984, on the other hand, there has developed a thought police whose purpose is to ensure that any material that individuals possess that might threaten the ruling order are apprehended and sentenced to death. The need for the party’s survival has created a situation where children in Oceania are indoctrinated with the need to spy on everyone who might possibly have any information that threatens the regime. This indoctrination is so great that these children end up also spying on and surrendering their own parents to the though police if the latter indeed have any dissenting material. In this way, children have become the means through which the government spies on its citizens and this is a sign that the normal traditional values of family loyalty have been destroyed, leaving behind a situation where there is no loyalty between individuals and families in the society. Independent thought has greatly been encouraged through the study of human history and this has ensured the development of new ideas. Because of this, the governments in both 1984 and Brave New World have ensured that this ability has been immensely diminished. These governments have come to realize that it is only through the study of old ideas that new ideas are developed and this has led to their destruction of material that may contain information that may be a threat to them.

In conclusion, as seen in both books, despite the large reserves of information that can lead to the further development of the human race, the ruling elite has chosen to destroy such information, perceiving it as a threat. In both of these books, the information provided by these governments do not have the qualities which the original sources of information have because most of the information gotten from the sources that are approved are often instant and shallow. These governments do not allow individuals to contemplate on the information which they read and this ensures that they do not have independent thought. The lack of independent thought due to the absence of knowledge has come to put the human race into a dark age of intellectual stagnation, as seen in these two works. When one reads these books, one comes to the conclusion that the ability to think through the learning of the previous work of others is what has helped the advancement of the human race. The inability to think and the reliance on shallow sources of information such as the internet is likely to see the end of the world as we know it. Human beings learn about their past from books and with this knowledge, the take action to avoid the mistakes of their past. Therefore, without adequate knowledge, the human race will probably end up destroying itself because it will not have the ability to learn from its past.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Jungle is a novel which depicts the unpleasant conditions within which workers had to work in meat packing plants in order to earn a living. It is a description, in the form of a story, of the experiences which Upton Sinclair had while working undercover for six months in an attempt to gather information on an article he was writing. These working conditions are described so vividly that anyone who reads them might become revolted by the conditions in these meatpacking plants. The novel is most realistic, as it follows the life of an immigrant, Jurgis, and his family who comes to America in an attempt to have a better life. In doing so, he ends up working in a meatpacking plant, where the exact opposite of his dreams come to take place. It must be noted that many of the people who ended up working in these plants under sometimes appalling conditions tended to be immigrants and these had no other choice other that to go on doing the same jobs because they had no education and had little knowledge of English. It was therefore difficult for them to recognize the injustices in their lives and in doing so work towards escaping such injustices. It can be said the The Jungle is an attempt by Sinclair to describe the working conditions of the United States according to his socialist views and a way to push the American public into taking action against such conditions, since they are the ones who are the largest beneficiaries of the labor of the immigrants.

The Jungle is basically a political novel whose main purpose is to propagate the socialist view of the ideal America. It is an attempt by Upton Sinclair to show how workers in the industries in the United States worked under bad conditions to earn a living. One of the main themes that can be found in this novel which are an obvious part of the socialist views of Sinclair is that of exploitation. The factory owners and managers exploit their workers in every way possible and treat them more like slaves than as free human beings. Among the most appalling things which the factory managers do is to sexually abuse some of their female workers. This can be seen when Ona, Jurgis’s wife, is raped by her employer, with the latter threatening that she would lose her job if she does not continue giving him sexual favors. Moreover, many of the factory workers have no job security because they can lose their jobs at any moment at the slightest pretext. An example of this sis when Jurgis ends up losing his job because of an injury sustained while working. While this would not, in normal circumstances, get him to lose his job, in Jurgis’ case, it is different because he is not aware of his rights. When it is seen that he will not be able to be as productive as before, he is fired, and this is done without his being provided with any compensation by his employer. While it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that the workplace is safe for his employees, this is not the case in The Jungle. Although it is the employer’s fault when accidents take place in the workplace, the employer does not take steps to improve the working conditions. Instead, workers who get injured lose their jobs, and the families of those who lose their lives are not compensated.

One of the main themes that are dealt with in this novel is that of the evils brought about by capitalism and the idea that socialism is its cure. For most of his political life, Upton Sinclair was a dedicated socialist whose actions and works tended to upset many of the mainstream Americans who were dedicated capitalists. While Sinclair did not call out for the abolition of capitalism, he advocated for the inclusion of socialism into the American way of life. This would have ensured that there was a balance in the economy, with the people in the lower classes in society being provided with the opportunity for advancement. Throughout The Jungle, Sinclair shows how the family of Jurgis is destroyed by the cruelties that are brought about by capitalism. Most of the disastrous and tragic things that happen to his family are as a result of their lack of a stable financial base through which to support them. Their faith in the so called American Dream is tarnished as the realities of the capitalist ways that are prevalent in America are felt directly. They turn from a family that is full of hope for a better future, to one which gets involved in some of the most abhorrent practices in society. Sinclair’s narrative is one designed to show that capitalism is evil and that the best way to get rid of it is to adopt communism.

In the novel, the American Dream is considered to be just that, a dream and this is because of the fact that despite moving from Lithuania to America in anticipation of having a better life, this does not happen for Jurgis’ family and instead, they end up living in worse conditions than those in their home country. This can be considered to be a parallel of the life which Upton Sinclair’s family lived due to their relative poverty. While both his parents’ families were of aristocratic backgrounds, his father’s family had been ruined during the American Civil War and despite being in America, they had not managed to regain the wealth and prominence that had once been theirs. Instead, Sinclair’s father had to become a salesman in order to make ends meet, something he barely could because of his alcoholism. Sinclair therefore spent some of his childhood with his wealthy maternal family and because of this, experienced both poverty and wealth. In The Jungle, through the portrayal of the tragedies which are encountered by Jurgis and those around him, Sinclair comes to reveal the ugliness that is capitalism, and his belief that the lot of the poor in America has to be improved for the American Dream to finally come true. It is this theme which he used throughout his political career and despite not being able to gain any elective position; he ended up being influential in other matters.

In conclusion, it can be said that The Jungle is an influential novel whose main endeavor was to prove Sinclair’s view that capitalism was an evil practice. Instead, there is the recommendation for the adoption of socialism as the best way of improving the lives of those who have been deprived in society. Sinclair wanted the American public to see the evils which were brought about by the greed and inhumanity of those who practiced capitalism. The unfortunate working conditions that the poor had to undergo everyday of their lives to make their employers wealthier than they already were is a recurring theme in the novel. While this was the novel’s original intention, the public did not come to view it the way Sinclair did and instead, they came to look upon it as a revelation of the unclean environment through which the food they consumed was processed. In the end, The Jungle failed to represent the real intentions of its author and instead, it became a revelation of the food health issues that were prevalent in the United States. The novel was a representation of the political views of Upton Sinclair but it ended up coming into the service of the larger meat processing plants at the expense of the smaller ones.

Masculinity in Things Fall Apart

The theme of masculinity in Things Fall Apart can be seen extensively, and it can be said that the male characters involved in it are defined according to this theme. The most prominent of these characters is Okonkwo, whose personality can be said to be thoroughly masculine and who is used as an example from which all the other men in Umuofia are defined. There are instances throughout the novel where Okonkwo is described to do things which one would associate with masculinity, as opposed to femininity. Okonkwo himself is extremely hardworking and ambitious, whose aim is to build his reputation to the highest level that can be attained in his society. His ambition is because of the way his father, Unoka acted his whole life. Unoka can be described as a man who totally lacked ambition and was content to live his life as it was without any worry concerning the future. He is described as having been lazy and owed quite a number of people and extensive amount of debt, which he never bothered to pay. Okonkwo disliked the lifestyle which his father led, believing that Unoka was a lazy man who did not have the capability of developing himself to greatness. Okonkwo, therefore, chose to become as different to Unoka as he could and he did this by doing things which the society considered to be highly masculine such as the attainment of wealth and status as well as a large family. In this paper, we shall consider masculinity in the novel by analyzing the different characters within it, especially Okonkwo, and how Achebe has brought this theme to life in his work.

In the novel, the traditional Igbo society can be described as one which is unquestionably male dominated, with the men being seen as the most influential people within it. Because of the male dominance of society, masculinity in every form is highly emphasized to the extent of making femininity look inferior. Masculinity in the society of Umuofia is tied to the physical characteristics of the people involved, and it can be said that to be born a man in the society is an immense privilege indeed. That is the reason why in the novel, the instances where boys are born are greeted with greater joy than when girls are born. Furthermore, to be a male in this society has certain requirements that have to be met in order to prove ones masculinity. A man has to display in all the characteristics associated with being male not only physically but also in personality. People such as Okonkwo are tremendously respected in the society because of their achievements in the acquisition of wealth and status. Okonkwo, for example, is respected because of the great wealth in yams which he has managed to amass for himself and also because of his prowess in war and other physical activities which are associated with masculinity in the Igbo society. This is in stark contrast to his father Unoka who was looked down upon by everyone in society due to his laziness and easygoing nature that many considered to be feminine characteristics.

Okonkwo goes out of his way to be as different to his father as possible so that he can avoid the shame of being associated with femininity. It can be said that, in Igbo society, femininity is considered to be a characteristic to be ashamed of and which should not be encouraged especially among men in the society. Masculinity in this society is highly priced, and all men are supposed to behave in a way which enhances this characteristic. This is the reason why Okonkwo shows disappointment in his oldest son Nwoye, whom he considers not to display the characteristics which he considers to be masculine. Instead, Okonkwo sees a lot of his own father in the boy, and he believes that Nwoye may have inherited these characteristics from Unoka. What Okonkwo does not seem to realize is the fact that because of his success, he has come to develop extremely high expectations from his sons and if the boys do not achieve what he  has achieved, then he considers them to be failures. He believes that he has to be the embodiment of strength in all ways because if he displays any form of weakness towards anyone, then he would lose the respect of those around him as Unoka did. This is the reason why despite his not being a cruel man by nature, he treats his family with a heavy hand often displaying harshness towards them that he would otherwise not have displayed.

Masculinity is dominant in the society, and this makes every aspect associated with femininity to be looked upon as inferior. This is the reason why women in this society are inferior to the men and their role is tied to the service of their husbands and the bearing of children for them. Women in this society only gain respect through their production of children, with those who have more children being accorded more respect than those with fewer children. This is the reason why the childlessness of Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s second wife, due to from stillbirths and death at infancy, was a source of immense sadness for her. It can, therefore, be said that it was a source of immense joy for her when her daughter, Ezinma grew up past her infancy. Ezinma is throughout the novel, seen to be the favorite child of Okonkwo, and this is mainly due to her strength of character. One will note that Okonkwo tends to wish that she was a boy, and this displays the fact that the society of Umuofia puts more value on boys more than girls. Girls are considered to be more of property than as equals to boys, and they are seen to be only good for childbearing and as a source of wealth to their families. This belief ensures that the men continue to dominate the society and that masculinity continues to be the superior.

In the society of Umuofia, masculinity tends to be associated with violence and men gain the respect of society through their displays of violence. Wrestling is a sport in which there is often some violence as each of the contenders strives to defeat their opponent. The victor ends up being respected by society for their prowess in the ring in throwing their opponents. This was one of the displays of masculinity made by Okonkwo which ensured that he gained the respect of Umuofia. He did this by managing to throw the previously undefeated wrestler known as Amalinze the Cat, because of the fact that his back had never touched the ground during a match. Violence in the name of masculinity is also displayed when the men of Umuofia go to war. Okonkwo receives a terrific deal of praise from his society because when he went to war, he returned with five heads of the enemy, and in this way, it can be said that he established his manhood to the society. In addition, when the Oracle declares that Ikemefuna, a boy who was living in Okonkwo’s household be put to death, Okonkwo is the one who gives the deathblow despite the fact that he had grown extremely fond of the boy. He kills Ikemefuna not because he  had to, but because of the fact that he did not want to be seen as weak among his peers (Korang 15 para.70). Okwonkwo feels that it is his obligation not to show any kind of weakness because, in his society, weakness is associated with femininity. Despite his being a kindhearted man, Okonkwo displays his masculinity by ruling his household with a heavy hand, often beating his wives whenever they do anything to offend him. He is also seen to have a particularly bad temper as seen when he almost shoots Ekwefi after she insults his pride. In this society where masculinity is considered to be dominant, the worst insult to a man is to be called a woman because the latter is associated with femininity and, therefore, weakness. It becomes necessary for men to constantly display their dominance through displays of violence especially against the members of their own households.

In conclusion, it can be said that masculinity is what defines the lives of the men in the male dominated society of Umuofia. These men are obliged to display those characteristics which are considered masculine because to do otherwise is considered to be a sign of weakness. Despite the fact that some men, such as Unoka, are easy going and are often happy with their lives, their lack of display of such attributes that are considered masculine ends up making them to be seen as being weak. Moreover, a display of violence is one of those attributes associate with masculinity, and this is the reason why the men of Umuofia believe that a man is weak if he does not display some form of violence. It can, therefore, be said that masculinity in this society is regarded as a way through which men can retain their dominance.

Things Fall Apart - Achebe's Criticism of Pre-Colonial Igbo Culture

Things Fall Apart is the story of a society at a crossroads between the traditional way of life, and modernity, as represented by the coming of the white man and the colonial government. It is the story of Okonkwo, the main character, who struggles to attain his position in society and once he achieves it, this position comes to be threatened by the coming of the colonial government. In writing this novel, Chinua Achebe seems to be criticizing some of the traditional ways of the Igbo society through the various characters that are encountered in the novel. Among the things which Achebe looks at are; the killing of hostages for in exchange for a life taken; the definition of masculinity; and finally, the violence displayed by some of the men in Igbo society.

Among the most prominent of the characters in this novel is Okonkwo, whose personality can be said to be thoroughly masculine and who is used as an example from which all the other men in Umuofia are defined. There are instances throughout the novel where Okonkwo is described as doing things which one would associate with masculinity. He is extremely hardworking and ambitious, whose aim is to build his reputation to the highest level that can be attained in his society. While this is the case, he seems to have an extremely difficult relationship with his son, Nwoye, whom he believes not to be manly enough. Okonkwo is, throughout the novel, seen to treat his son quite harshly, even in very trivial situations. This creates a situation where the relationship between these two is extremely strained and there is a rift between them that cannot be filled. As a result, Nwoye eventually chooses to leave his father’s home and join the missionaries, where he eventually comes to find peace. In this case, Achebe seems to be criticizing the aloof nature of Okonkwo in raising his son, believing that if he shows any affection for Nwoye, then the boy will end up being weak and effeminate.

Achebe criticizes the Igbo practice of killing of hostages from another village in revenge in a situation where a person from the said village has taken a life. He uses the case of Ikemefuna to show his disapproval since this boy was brought to Umuofia as a hostage, where he was put in the charge of Okonkwo. Ikemefuna becomes a part of Okonkwo’s household and is, in fact, treated as an older brother by the latter’s children. However, there comes a time when the Oracle declares that Ikemefuna, has to be put to death in revenge for the killing of an Umuofian years earlier. Okonkwo is the one who gives the deathblow with his matchet despite the fact that he had grown extremely fond of the boy. He kills Ikemefuna not because he has to, but because of the fact that he does not want to be seen as weak by his peers. Okonkwo later feels disturbed by this action and goes to speak to his best friend Obierika, who, ever the voice of reason in the novel, tells him that he should not have participated in the killing of Ikemefuna. Obierika further reveals that he himself did not participate in the putting to death of Ikemefuna, and this can be said to be Achebe’s way of showing his disapproval of the practice.

In Things Fall Apart, violence and a quick temper are associated with masculinity and it is something which is associated to all the men within the society. The most prominent of these is Okonkwo, who, despite his being a kindhearted man; he displays his manly authority by ruling his household with a heavy hand, often beating his wives whenever they do anything to offend him. He is also seen to have a particularly bad temper as seen when he almost shoots Ekwefi after she insults his pride. In addition, whereas the other men of Unuofia choose to submit to colonial rule, Okonkwo chooses to retain the past ideals of his society by remaining violent. This eventually leads to a point when he hacks a colonial officer to death with a machete, thinking that this will lead to the men of Umuofia rising against colonial rule. When this does not happen, he realizes that his way of life is gone, and as a result, hangs himself. In this case, Achebe displays his disapproval of the violent ways of the Igbo culture and how such violence might lead to the destruction of the people.