ABSTRACT
The research work reviews the historical encounter between the whites
and Africans and argues that the challenges or problems evident in the
black society at present are as a result of the white m also looks into
the social values and system of meaning that promotes male dominance and
demeans the woman.
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Statement of problem
1.3 Objective of study
1.4 Scope of study
1.5 Research Method
CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Literature Review
CHAPTER THREE
3.1 The Bluest Eye
3.2 The Society and the Girl child
3.3 Characterization in The Bluest Eye
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Yellow Yellow
4.2 The society and the Girl Child
4.3 Characterization in Yellow Yellow
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Comparative analysisTheBluestbetweenEyeand Morriso Agary‟sYellowYellow
5.2 Conclusion
WORKS CITED
1.1 INTRODUCTION
According to Cambridge dictionary, society is defined as a
particular community of people who share the same customs, law etc. It
is also defined as the state of being with other people. (1129).
A girl child is described as a female child between infancy and early
adulthood. During this period of the development of the girl child, she
is under the custody and supervision of adults who may be her parents
or guardians and siblings who are older and more mature than she is. The
girl child is easily influenced by her experiences as she develops. She
models her behaviour during this development process though
observations and imitations of those she depends on, and her physical,
mental and emotional development start and reach their peak within this
stage.
In attempting to establish the relationship between the society and
the girl child, we ask certain pertinent questions relating to how she
child is received and related with in her contemporary society. What are
the struggles, challenges and oppression faced by the girl child? What
are the factors that foist on the girl child such challenges and
oppression?
From the family circle to the public sphere, the girl child has
suffered much hardship and has been greatly dehumanized. This is due to
the fact that she is
regarded as inferior to her brother. She is devalued and as Buchi
Emecheta portrays her, she is a second class citizen in a society ruled
by male chauvinism. In especially most African societies, the girl child
has been consigned to an inferior status for which she constantly wears
a daunted image. This inferiority is as a result of the patriarchal
ideology in the society which bestows undue self importance on the male
child. The result of this is that, men do everything to undermine the
women in order to arbitrarily institute value and ideologies in the
society. The African society and the diaspora is a society with a
tradition that bestows importance to the male folk, neglecting the
female folks. This patriarchal ideology has influenced the way the girl
characters are projected by male writers in their literary texts. In
most literary works, female characters always wear one of these images:
prostitute, girlfriend, courtesans, and workers and are evident in
these novels: Clara is Obi‟s loverNo longinat EaseChinua:ElsieA Ache
Man of the People by Achebe is Odili‟s girlfriend girlfriend; and HalfalsoofYellowinSunChimamanda‟s,weseeOlamaas
Odenigbo‟s lover.maleThesecharacterimags ofcreditfe assertion.
The female character in African f luster human being, the quiet
member of a household only to bear children, unfulfilled if she does
not, and handicapped if she bears only daughtersility… andDoc complete
submission of will is demanded and enacted from her. (Chukwumma 1990;
131)
They construct the girl character as a passive and inconsequential
object. The male writers communicated a picture of the girl child as one
whose destiny is subject to the whims of her male folk.Our primary
source will be used in carrying out this research. Attention will be
paid to the womanist tenet that throws some light in the oppression of
the girl
child as portrayed in African literature. Womanism is referred to as
the concept of feminism. Coined by Alice walker, it is meant to account
for the
survival of the black people. (Walker 1984;89) Womanism upholds
respect for the family units by Africans both in the continent and in
the diaspora. Womanism is communal in its orientation and goes beyond
the husband and wife context. This ideology of womanism caused Africans
and African-Americans to present the struggle of the black woman in her
society. This is presented through the text of Toni Morrison and
KaineAgary: The Bluest Eye and Yellow Yellow respectively.
Writers are mostly influenced by their environment and circumstance in history which helped to shape their society.