“A man belongs to his homeland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is pain and bitterness he finds refuge in his homeland. Your mother is there to protect you. . . . And this is why we say that the mother is supreme" (p. 134). In Achebe's 1959 “Things Fall Apart,” female figures appear to have minor, tame roles; however with these words Achebe draws attention to the female strength within the tribe. Female power is recognized within the tribe and the fear of this power forms the foundation of the male obsession with displays of masculinity. Achebe highlights significant female goddesses, shows a solid female role in education, fully develops strong-minded female characters, and demonstrates male catastrophes, then establishes that female gender is the strongest gender in the tribe. Achebe's whispering of female forces in his novel was influenced by his intended for Western audiences of the 1950s. Cobham suggests, as cited by Krishnan (2012), that “Achebe chooses representations of Igbo society that are more easily digestible by a Western audience” (p.8). In the 1950s, with the end of World War II and men returning home, women's value was seen primarily as housewives and mothers. Catalano (2002) illustrates the atmosphere of the 1950s United States by explaining that "the Cold War placed further emphasis on the family unit as a defense against communism, making women's roles as wives and mothers crucial to the preservation of the United States and its democratic democracy." ideals” and argues, many “identify the 1950s as the height of gender inequality” (p45). For the benefit of his audience, the standard female characters Achebe made evident mimicked those of the United States in the 1950s: the inferior, domesticated woman... middle of paper... Things fall apart. New York, NY: Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Catalano, Christina (2002). Shaping the American Woman: Feminism and Advertising in the 1950s. Constructing the past 3(1), article 6, 45-55. Retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing/vol3/iss1/6Jeyifo, B. (1993). Okonkwo and his mother: “Things fall apart” and gender issues in the constitution of postcolonial African discourse. Callaloo, 16(4), 847-859 Retrieved from http://www.ucd.ie/english/articles/balzano1.htmKrishnan, M. (2012). Mami Wata and the occluded feminine in Anglophone Nigerian-Igbo literature. Research in African Literatures, 43(1), 1-18. doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.43.1.1Nnolim, C. E. (1983). Form and function of popular tradition in Achebe's novels. Retrieved from http://ariel.synergiesprairies.ca/ariel/index.php/ariel/article/viewFile/1670/1629