A Glimpse of the Family Structure in the Ibo Society

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In “Things Fall Apart” the Ibo society has a traditional family structure. The traditional family structure contains roles for each of the members of the family unit. It is an established structure that maintains the same over time. The wives, children, and husband must maintain their roles in order to continue the established structure. A traditional Ibo family structure comprises of multiple wives. The wives are responsible for bearing children. The wives relationship with the children is a close relationship due to the time spent with them. The wives also are responsible for working on the farm, nurturing the children, and taking care of household chores. The wives educate the children through storytelling. Aside from taking care of the children the wives must clean the compounds, cook for the entire family, and tend to the husband’s every need. The wives are responsible for holding the family together. If the wives upset the husband in any way the husband can beat them. The wives relationship with their husband is distant because of their fear of him. There are usually many children in the family units. The children’s responsibility is to work on the yam farms. The sons are to work hard to prove themselves worthy as a future husband. The sons must also prove themselves worthy to carry on the family name and inherit the land. Much different than the sons, the daughter’s main function is to be sold by their fathers to be brides. The fathers typically favor the sons over the daughters. The husband’s role in the family is the most important role in the Ibo society. The husband has multiple wives in order to determine their social status. The husband maintains control over his family at all times. He must provide food from the yam farm for the wives and children. The husband has ownership of his wives and children. Every aspect of the wives

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