OF DIGNITY: UNPACKING THE KNAPSACK OF FEMALE-SUFFOCATION IN JOHN MUNONYE’S OIL MAN OF OBANGE AND CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE’S PURPLE HIBISCUS

Clara Ijeoma Osuji

Abstract


The undercurrents of the inferior female and the marginalised mother which are considerably discernible in Oil Man of Obange and Purple Hibiscus alert the reader to the complex and, often, objectionable practices which continue to sustain patriarchal ideologies and encourage their related female-suffocating philosophies to thrive within a typical family unit. The expression, “female-suffocation” as deployed in this paper refers to the stifling of female productivity, talents and creative energies which, predictably, result when females attempt strict conformity to patriarchal ideals of normative femininity. Drawing on the conceptual framework of the theory of feminism as espoused by Akachi Ezeigbo, this chapter argues that while the two main mother characters in the selected texts are maginalised by the general patriarchal system of their individual environments, however, they fail to utilise the necessary emancipation tools of sensitiveness, wisdom, self-improvement and resilience. Therefore, by wholly accepting the socio-familial constructions of femaleness which devalue them, they unwittingly or otherwise, encourage their husbands’ unrestrained hegemonic stance. In this manner, the characters yield to self-tyranny and ultimately become both the victimisers and the victimised. Consequently, they do not only promote and prolong the legacy of gender inequality but also remain complicit in their own devaluations, indignities and afflictions.

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