The girl-child as a victim: Perspectives in Amma Darko’s Beyond the horizon

Abstract

It is observed that the well-documented issues of oppression and discrimination have been an age-long tradition which affects the life of women, generally. The issues of forced marriages, sex trafficking, domestic and sexual abuse have seriously penetrated the society at large. They pose severe threat to the female gender. The researcher, having observed that no scholar had given needed attention to the tragedy of the girl-child in Ghana as portrayed by Amma Darko, sought to do just that. The study is thus carried out to ascertain the extent of gender induced burden on the girl-child and its adverse and far-reaching psychological implications on the female gender. As a result, this study examines Amma Darko’s Beyond the horizon. This work makes use of objectification theory. The theory is, basically, the act of seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman as an object. In the core concept of this study, objectification connotes a patriarchal structure that evaluates the female as a means of (objects for) Gratifying sexual needs as well as object of economic exploitation, satisfaction of certain self-desires and wants usually sexual and economic satisfaction. In order to critically analyse the status of the girl-child as a victim of societal oppression and objectification, excerpts from the novel, Beyond the horizon are contextually discussed to show the extent to which these experiences and harsh reality often affect the female victims psychologically. Patriarchal Culture is identified as being the main cause of these ordeals, and therefore, needs to be revisited as it silences women and hinders their self-actualisation in the society.