Gender Violence in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun
CHAPTER ONE
Aim and objectives of study
The aim of this research is to portray the existence of gender violence in the Nigerian novel and its depiction in Chimamanda Adichie‘s writing. This research is premised on the fact that literature is a chronicler of society through which societal issues are analysed with a view to making the society better. Gender- based violence is an endemic problem in the Nigerian society but under represented in many literary works about women despite the fact that it impedes the growth and psychological well being of the female who most women writers are preoccupied with in their works. Thefore, this research interrogates how this problem is depicted in the two selected novels of Chimamanda Adichie and necessitated the impetus for this study which captures the essence of gender discourse. Therefore, these research objectives will show that:
In women writing, the female gender is often a victim of various forms of violence.
The texts selected for this study by the thematic preoccupation and character delineation show culture and tradition as strong factors in sex differentiation and the creation of gender identities.
Socially constructed roles and identities contribute to domestic and social violence in patriarchal societies.
The dialectics of gender- based violence can be better understood when approached from the theoretical perspectives of Max Weber‘s Power and Radical Feminist theories.
CHAPTER TWO
Review of related literature
Fiction coming out of Nigeria during the 21st century is marked by attempts to depict social realities through literary representation of events and and true to life characters. The literary artist is perceived as a revolutionary thinker whose preoccupation is to change the world, channel the mind and consciousness of his people towards new sets of values and higher awareness of reality. The essence of literature therefore is to condition the mind of people to certain values, attitudes, tastes, feelings, emotional reactions and patterns of behaviour. According to Adeyanju (1999), ―the power of art in transforming society lies in its potential by exposing a bad situation, the writer or artist suggests ideas that could correct such situations and leaves the final decision to the reader‖.
Therefore, the influence of art can only be an indirect one. Consequently, if man is to change society through art, it means it must address the hopes and aspirations of the people. It must contain a message shared by the audience and can also inspire in them a desire for change. By delineating social problems through scenic representations in art forms like the novel, the artist is able to create a channel to get the reader‘s empathy to engineer social change. According to Meyer (2003:98),‗‗The illusion of reality is the magic that allows us to move beyond the circumstances of our own lives into a writer‘s fictional world, where we can encounter everyone from royalty to paupers murderers, lovers, cheats, martyrs, artists
,destroyers and nearly some parts of ourselves‘‘. Thus, through the use of recognizable symbols, the artist has the power to create new realities. This ability to recreate believable characters and events that people can empathise and relate with, emboldens the writer who through his penmanship is able to affect society and eventually can cause a ripple of social reengineering. Thus a committed writer according to Ngugi Wa Thiongo (1978) should, ―…respond with his total personality to a social environment which changes with time. Being
a kind of sensitive needle, he registers with varying degrees of accuracy and success the conflicts and tensions in his changing society… for the writer himself lives in and is shaped by history‖.
In her writings, Chimamanada Adichie portrays a new and positive image of women that is different from the pictures presented in male authored novels that are modelled along cultural ideals which define women as marriage-oriented and dependent on men for their survival and protection (Selden, 1989; Birkett & Harvey, 1991). Feminist writers like Chimamanda Adichie in their works depict that some of the cultural values which oppress women are clearly visible in marital institutions. As Oriaku (1996) notes, married life, both in real life and in fiction, is perhaps the most circumscribing factor in the life of an African woman.
With the rise of the female liberation movement in Africa and the world over in the seventies and eighties, there have been different writings about women and how they are oppressed by many repressive cultures and traditions with the view of raising the consciousness of the female to self empowerment and to rise out of obscurity. Nawal El Saadawi‘s Woman at Point Zero, Flora Nwapa‘s One is Enough, Buchi Emecheta‘s Second Class Citizen are some of the few examples.
In the criticism of women writing in Nigeria, there is often a one dimensional approach in trying to create a female literary canon. Frequently, there is a repetitive approach to the analyses of gender conflict along the lines of male oppression of the female rather than looking at the wider picture of other societal issues. This has made Shigali (2008) to approach the study of African women writers from the perspective of empowerment and try to provide an alternative interpretative approach that deconstructs the western feminist readings of African literature. Her study enriches the gender discourse on power and emerging conceptual frameworks for understanding African female writers‘ works, but does not address the contemporary challenges of the African people like gender-based violence, corruption, misrule, ethnic tension, and religious fundamentalism. These are issues which remarkably stand out in the discussion of Adichie’s two novels.
Chimamanda Adichie , the author under review, writes about issues affecting the nation and the role of the female in surmounting problems .She also explores a salient issue that is often not a central theme in Nigerian female authored novels; the concept of gender- based violence . Adichie explores this theme as major issues affecting women in Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. Chimamanda Adichie‘s exploration of the subject of gender violence is because women and girls in Nigeria are still subjected to various culturally based forms of abuse, exploitation and discrimination. The most common forms of these abuse are ,wife battering, rape and other forms of sexual violence during wars and conflict situations, female genital mutilation, trafficking in women, and inhuman widowhood practices and these various acts are identified indices mitigating against the growth of the female in the society.
CHAPTER THREE:
Purple Hibiscus
Introduction: The Reconstruction of childhood Personae in Purple Hibiscus
‗And the first step… is always what matters most, particularly when we are dealing with the young and tender. This is the time when they are taking shape and when any impression we choose to make leaves a permanent mark‘
( Plato (428-348BC: cited in Clarke and Clarke, 2000, p 11).
The term, ‗childhood‘ is generally recognized as a socially constructed phenomenon. The construction of childhood identity is thus dependent on culturally determined behavior of a given society. Therefore, it is inevitable that the socialization of the girl-child will be marked by the existence of distinct gender roles. This is because the role which is often seen as ideal for the girl ,is a being whose purpose is derived from the existence of another, whether husband, father or extended family and whose locus is the home or household. Often, this is done with the objective of turning the girl into a good wife/ mother as the hallmark of a successful woman. Consequently, she becomes unassertive, dependent, controlled and subservient to the male.
Hence In feminist writings, there is a deliberate attempt to deconstruct literary representations of femininity and girlhood. This is a result of the sex- role stereotyping of children into specific modes of behavior deemed acceptable. For instance, in many short stories, it is the tradition to cast boys in the roles of heroes and protagonists while the girls are often cast in domestic roles. It can be seen therefore, that patriarchal values still dominate many literary genres about childhood. Trites (2010) defines the ideal feminist children’s novel as one in which;
the main character is empowered regardless of gender‖: ―[I]n a feminist children’s novel, the child’s sex does not provide a permanent obstacle to her development. Although s/he will likely experience some gender related conflicts, s/he ultimately triumphs over them…a successful feminist children’s novel, will feature a protagonist who recognizes her or his agency and voice, and embraces a more androgynous expression of gender, thus incorporating ―both stereotypically masculine an feminine characteristics into a balanced whole.
CHAPTER FOUR:
Half of a Yellow Sun
The Nigerian Civil War and the Redefined image of Women in
Half of a Yellow Sun
In this novel, Adichie, chronicles the history of the Nigerian civil war and tries to give her own version of what transpired during the war .For according to Achebe in Anthills of the Savannah ―to some of us the Owner of the World has apportioned the gift to tell their fellows that the time to get up has finally come And then there are those others whose part is to wait and when the struggle is ended, to take over and recount its story. (Anthills: 113). And it is in the recounting that history is preserved and passed on from one generation to the other, for according to him ―it is only the story [that] can continue beyond the war and the warrior. It is the story that outlives the sound of war-drums and the exploits of brave war and the Fighters. It is the story, not the others, that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it, we are blind.‖(Anthills, 114).
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
This study titled ‗Gender Violence in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun examines the depiction of gender violence in the two novels. It has been established that since the post-colonial era in Nigeria, various voices of women expressing their concerns about the subjugation of women and other issues affecting the growth of the Nigerian female have been heard. Nonetheless, issues like gender–based violence, religious extremism, domestic abuse and violence are seldomly introduced in post- colonial literature in the works of first generation female writers, unlike the writings of the new generation of women writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Through her writings, it is established that patriarchy is an ideology that seeks to show that a woman‘s main purpose in life was to be a mother and a wife and this categorization affects different women regardless their educational status.
In Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, Adichie presents a complex rather than simplistic view of her characters. She effectively works to dismantle the image of African women as a homogenous group of hard-working, powerless and self-sacrificing victims complacent in their subordinate positions. In Purple Hibiscus through the character of Beatrice, she paints a picture of an African woman that is burdened by the double yoke of patriarchy and illiteracy. Unable to redefine herself or stand up for her rights, she finally resorts to murdering her husband, Eugene, to liberate herself and her victimized children. Her inability to stand up for herself early enough in the novel leads to the tragedy of her husband‘s death, her son‘s incarceration and the onset of her insanity. On the other hand, in her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, Adichie gives each character the opportunity to explain, or be explained, which gives the reader a better opportunity to understand their actions and choices. In both novels, she discusses violence against women in its different forms and how it gains expression when the victim is often encumbered by various cultural or religious obligations which are often unchallenged because of the victim‘s educational or social status like Beatrice in Purple Hibiscus. She illustrates that the only difference is that the Western educated women are able to free themselves from this abuse quickly because of their ability to stand on their rights and economic power as seen in the characters of Ifeoma, Olanna and Kainene. Therefore, women‘s education and economic viability are emphasized as means of women‘s empowerment and growth.
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