Paper 2 Outline

Prompt: With reference to Things Fall Apart, discuss how an understanding of gender influences how the text may be understood.

Thesis: To a reader with a contemporary Western understanding of gender, the  rigidly established gender roles both by the Igbo society and Okonkwo, and his relationship with secondary characters i then interpreted as profound hatred. 

Topic sentence 1: Through the precise decoration of the Igbo society in the first part of the book, the readers are presented a story and setting that challenged their former thoughts on Africa. Through this candid decoration and presentation, the readers are almost disgusted by the gender inequality. 
Topic sentence 2: Through the use of such places such as Mbanta, Chinua Achbe also emphasizes that women were also valued, and that gender inequalities within the book were merely anomalies
Topic sentence 3:Through the use of Igbo proverbs and other evidences of orality, Achebe demonstrates the difference in Okonkwo's and the Igbo ideals of gender despite the evidence of rigid gender roles in both.