Over the years, women have fought for equal positioning in male-dominated societies. Oftentimes throughout this struggle they are overlooked in every facet of life: political agenda, idea formulation, and even literature. Despite this overall lack of representation, in some bright, shining moments, women have also found themselves as pivotal characters in these arenas. Such is the dichotomy of women's roles in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Bessie Head's When Rain Clouds Gather. Though both stories center around impoverished, African villages, the role of women in each greatly vary. In one, strong women play title roles, though they are heavily backed up by lesser women of the village. In the other, the women are feeble and timid, allowing their men to daily tread upon them. In addition, each text has its own view of opposing gender roles one where women are a forceful and irreplaceable asset to society, and the other where women are thought of as little more than......
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Approximate Word Count: 1191
Approximate Pages: 5 (260 words per double-spaced page) |