In Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy, he talks about oral societies and how (compared to literate societies) prefer "loads of epithets" that reinforce stereotypes and expectations about their culture. Phrases like "the manly warrior" or "a sturdy wall" or "the nurturing mother" populate the language. He also states that these descriptors are "cumbersome and tiresomely redundant because of their aggregative weight."
I think it's interesting to think about this idea of epithets and stereotypes between the society in Things Fall Apart and our own society in the U.S. Okonkwo struggles with his son's supposedly effeminate personality because his society expects men to be strong and masculine. An oral society like Okonkwo's would fail to accept someone like Nwoye because of his atypical traits.
Compare that to a literate society like our own and you'll find it's not as extreme. Our culture still places expectations upon boys and girls to act a certain way, quite literally from birth. Boys are given a "masculine" color (blue) while girls get "feminine" colored clothes (pink). We still expect boys to enjoy sports and rough housing and girls to play with dolls and dress-up.
But what distinguishes the two is the reaction to someone breaking the norms. Okonkwo chokes Nwoye when he finds he's joined the Christian missionaries, and disowns him shortly thereafter. Things are (generally) not as extreme today.
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