Beyond the Single Story of the Ibo People and Teenage Girls

Those that choose to believe single stories view only one side of a person or a community.  In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe proves wrong the single story of the Ibo—helpless and insensitive people who need saving— through his protagonist Okonkwo, just as Jay Asher creates a representative for imperfect teenage girls with his character Hannah Baker in Thirteen Reasons Why. Hannah shows that not all girls fulfill the stereotype that teenage girls are shallow. However, Okonkwo’s quick temper, fear of failure, and fear of weakness—and Hannah’s trust issues, lack of self-confidence, and self-inflicted death—display the negative qualities of the Ibo people and teenage girls. By creating flawed protagonists, Chinua Achebe and Jay Asher acknowledge the positive and negative attributes of the Ibo people and teenage girls to present more complete and realistic stories of their subjects.  

Achebe dispels the single story of the helpless and insensitive Ibo people by displaying the positive attributes of the community through Okonkwo. Okonkwo becomes the village’s greatest wrestler and a successful yam farmer, eventually rising to a position of higher power, “He neither inherited a barn nor a title, nor even a young wife. But in spite of these disadvantages, he had begun even in his father’s lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future…[he] had risen so suddenly from great poverty and misfortune to be one of the lords of the clan,” (Achebe 18, 26).  Okonkwo works hard and earns the respect of his fellow Ibo people. Because he started from nothing, Okonkwo’s perseverance to establish a powerful name for himself in his village shows that, as a whole, the Ibo people are not helpless. Okonkwo partakes in the killing of Ikemefuna, a boy he considered his son, because the Oracle commands it.[Though he projects a strong exterior, the days that follow Ikemefuna’s murder haunt Okonkwo because he cares for the boy, “Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna…He felt like a drunken giant walking with the limbs of a mosquito. Now and then a cold shiver descended on his head and spread down his body,” (Achebe 63). Although he followed the word of the Oracle, the death of the boy racks him with guilt. Okonkwo’s deep affection for Ikemefuna, and his reaction to his death, proves that even the strongest Ibo men are capable of emotions that would be considered “weak” in Umuofia.

Although Hannah’s flaws essentially cause her death, a few of Hannah’s other qualities represent the positive attributes of teenage girls. When Hannah first moves to a new town, she meets Jessica, and the two become fast friends, “After the meeting, Jessica and I did hang out…neither of us were coffee drinkers, but it seemed like a nice place to chat…we both got hot chocolate. She ordered it thinking it would be funny,” (Asher 58, 59). Hannah’s ability to make friends easily can be found in teenage girls as an outgoing characteristic. Soon after she starts high school, Hannah meets Justin and instantly becomes infatuated with him. Hannah dreams about her first kiss with Justin, “I’d climb to the top of that rocket and let my head fall back against the steering wheel. The night breeze blowing through the bars calmed me…in my dreams, my first kiss took place at that rocket ship. It reminded me of innocence,” (Asher 24, 25). Hannah’s aptitude for making friends and her fantasies about Justin relate to the outgoing and creative characteristics found in most teenage girls .  

Okonkwo’s flaws complete Achebe’s story by showing the negative attributes of the Ibo people. Okonkwo often takes his anger out on his wife and children, “Without further argument Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping….his anger thus satisfied, Okonkwo decided to go out hunting,” (Achebe 38). Although the villagers might value Okonkwo’s controlling demeanor, his actions reveal the harsher, male-dominated side of Umuofia. However, while Okonkwo looks down upon outward displays of emotion, he secretly lives in fear of failure, “But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness…it was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father,” (Achebe 13). He refuses to let the reputation of his father—a man of gentleness and idleness—loom over him. Okonkwo also lets his fear affect his relationship with his son Nwoye. The Ibo people revolve their culture around strong men, but a man will be considered weak if he shows the qualities of a woman. Okonkwo lashes out at others because of his fear that the villagers will perceive him as weak, or similar to his father. Even though he was not forced to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo still participates in the murder, “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak,” (Achebe 61). Okonkwo’s fear of weakness proves that in Umuofia, image determines a level of power for men. When the missionaries arrive in Umuofia, and Okonkwo returns from exile for accidentally killing a boy, he kills a missionary out of rage, “He confronted the head messenger, trembling with hate, unable to utter a word…Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body,” (Achebe 204). Okonkwo’s rebellion against the missionaries bringing change into the Ibo culture proves that a side of the Ibo people is violent in nature to foreigners. Okonkwo’s unwillingness to conform to the changes in his village, and his anger at feeling weak compared to the missionaries, cause him to commit suicide.  

            Similarly to Achebe, Jay Asher dispels the stereotype of shallow teenage girls through the flaws of his character Hannah. Asher proves that teenage girls, often seen as one-dimensional and lacking in complexity, are capable of depth and should be taken seriously. However, sometimes, teenage girls feel too much, with the example of Hannah Baker. Hannah creates tapes and passes them down through a group of people that may have indirectly instigated her death. Within the tapes she recalls stories that take place in the months leading up to her suicide. The tapes begin with the story of Hannah trusting a boy too quickly; she regrets her decision when he starts a rumor about her, “A rumor based on a kiss started a reputation that other people believed in and reacted to…Betrayal. It’s one of the worst feelings,” (Asher 30, 13). Hannah’s reaction to her tarnished reputation shows the side of teenage girls that relies too heavily on image to determine self-worth. Hannah loses her will to live, which becomes evident within the cassette tapes as she explains the ways in which her schoolmates betray her. Hannah kills herself—after she voices her side of the story through the tapes—because of her insecurities and the depth in her sadness.  Hannah made the tapes with the intention of punishing others for not noticing her cries for help and for not taking her problems seriously, “I think I’ve made myself very clear, but no one’s stepping forward to stop me. A lot of you cared, just not enough. And that…that is what I needed to find out. And I did find out. And I’m sorry,” (Asher 280). Asher’s character exemplifies a teenage girl the opposite of shallow; Hannah Baker provides insight to a girl with raw, unfiltered emotions.

            Chinua Achebe and Jay Asher complete the stories of the Ibo people and teenage girls by creating flawed characters to represent both the good and the bad of their subjects. Hannah and Okonkwo fill in the gaps of the single stories in their communities by bringing a more realistic view to the stereotypes.

1. Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. New York: Razorbill, 2007. Print.

2. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.