CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Personal freedom is a condition in which people can speak, act and pursue happiness without

unnecessary external restrictions. Freedom is essential because it leads to enhanced expressions

of creativity and original thought, increased productivity, and overall high quality of life. On the

flip side, gender can be termed the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such

as norms, roles, and relationships of and between groups of women and men. This varies from

society to society.

In this chapter, we shall give a fairly-detailed background which will contextualize this

study within a broader framework so as to capture its applicableness to feminist writers in

general. We shall also state the objectives of this study, provide the questions that

necessitate this research, show its significance to the development of humanity (or justify the

essence of this study), as well as state the extent we will go in the execution of this research.

Definitions of key terms, the theoretical frameworks on which this research will be foregrounded

and the methodology that will be used shall also be clearly stated here.

1.2 DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

The modern English word “gender” is said to come from the Middle English word "gendre,", and

the Middle French word, "gendre." Both words mean "kind", "type", or "sort". Basically,

thererfore, refers to both gendering processes in society and outcomes of those processes. That

is, the range of characteristics pertaining to and differentiating between masculinity and

femininity. And depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex (i.e.,
male, female, or an intersex variation), sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles), or gender.

Most cultures use a gender binary, having two genders (boys or men and girls or women) while

some societies have specific genders besides "man" and "woman," such as the “hijras” of South

Asia and these are often referred to as third genders (and fourth genders, etc.).

Besides, ccording to Millet. gender is "the sum total of the parents', the peers', and the culture's

notions of what is appropriate to each gender by way of temperament, character, interests, status,

worth, gesture, and expression" (31). That is, " the roles and responsibilities of men and women

that are created in our families, our societies, and our cultures are a function of both biological

and sociological condition” (33). The concept of gender, therefore, entails the expectations held

about the characteristics, aptitudes, and likely behaviors of both women and men (femininity and

masculinity). Of course, gender roles and expectations can be learnt. However, cultural

differentiation such as political status, class, ethnicity, physical and mental disability, age and

more, have continued to modify gender roles. And as they can change over time, they become

vary within and between cultures. Hence, the concept of gender is vital because applied to social

analysis in the sense that it reveals how women's subordination (or men's domination) is socially

constructed i.e. it may not be totally biologically predetermined. Along this line, psychologists

like Stoller, found it helpful to distinguish sex and gender. This enabled them to argue that many

differences between women and men were socially produced and changeable. Gayle Rubin (for

instance) uses the phrase 'sex/gender system' to describe "a set of arrangements by which the

biological raw material of human sex and procreation is shaped by human, social

intervention"(55) What then, is personal freedom?

Personal freedom has been defined to mean “having the ability to act or change without

constraints…the condition in which people can speak, act and pursue happiness without
unnecessary external restrictions.” (17). Significantly, personal freedom is evident in the

expression of creativity and original thought that catalyzes the overall higher quality of life.

Infact, human development is almost an impossible where personal freedom is left out as

overtime, it has become a distinct measurement indicator on which nations’ democracy are built.

By this token, this research will attempt to project the social violence and social injustice which

gender places on personal freedom in the two primary texts - Kaine Agary's Yellow Yellow and

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple hibiscus. It will also bring to light how gender is used and

portrayed in the text and how so many characters in the text fought for their freedom.

1.3 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Liberty forms an essential part of personal freedom. In modern politics, “liberty is the state of

being free within society from control or oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's

way of life, behavior, or political views.” (Lexico Dictionaries). In the same light, liberty

involves free will as contrasted with determinism. In theology, liberty is freedom from the effects

of "sin, spiritual servitude, or worldly ties." (12) Sometimes liberty is differentiated from

freedom by using the word "freedom" if not exclusively, to mean the ability to do as one will and

what one has the power to do; and using the word "liberty" to mean the absence of arbitrary

restraints, taking into account the rights of all involved. In this sense, the exercise of liberty is

subject to capability and limited by the rights of others. Therefore, freedom is broader in being

that it represents a total lack of restraint or the unrestrained ability to fulfill one's desires. For

example, a person can have the freedom to murder but not have the liberty to murder. The latter

example is said to deprive others of their right not to be harmed. Evidently, liberty can be taken

away as a form of punishment. In many countries, people can be deprived of their liberty if they

are convicted of criminal acts.

Going by the above body of knowledge, personal freedom is essentially an inner thing,

something inside a man. It is the presence of something in a man's personality; not the absence of

constraint from without. This inwardness is the essence of personal freedom, and we get nowhere

until we recognize the fact. For instance, the question of imprisonment. It is, of course,

exceedingly difficult for a prisoner to be free, but it is possible. In many civilizations and periods

of history, rare people are to be found who have had perfect freedom in prison. The supreme

example is Socrates, who was utterly free up to the very moment of drinking the hemlock and

doubtless beyond. His freedom was never for a second in doubt.

Contrast him with another sort of prisoner, a murderer who struggles on his way to execution.

You have two kinds of a prisoner there, both about to be killed: the one possessed of utter

freedom, the other utterly lacking it. It is even possible for a man of exceedingly rare type to be

free in conditions far worse than imprisonment: to be free under torture. Having read memoir

detailing one or two very remarkable testimonies from people who have been tortured in

concentration camps and who I am convinced of it from the way they have told their stories have

nevertheless remained perfectly free even in the circumstances like that. The thing is possible

only with a degree of spiritual development excessively rare, but it is possible. To mention not

things rare, but a thing unique, Christ, except perhaps for one moment of dereliction, was

perfectly free on the Cross. Eventually, while it is possible, though very rare, for a man to be free

when constrained or tortured from without, a man can't be free when restrained or tortured by

fear or guilt, for example, from within. We see, from the comparison, that freedom is essentially

an inner thing, a thing of the spirit.

1.4 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

A mother’s mistake should not define a child, or so they say, but sometimes the best you can

wish for is that your mistake should not in any way represent or impact the life of your child.

Many women have been a victim of circumstances whereby the choices they make or were

forced to make result from the environment they found themselves. In the book Yellow Yellow,

the lead character is a child of circumstance, and her skin color doesn’t help her condition. The

book took a look at issues of racial identity, sexuality, corruption, poverty, and Niger-Delta oil. It

shed light on the struggles women who grew up without a father figure go through and how it

affects their ways of life. Many minority women suffer from marginalization and suppression,

which is still a significant problem today. It’s a problem of Gender Inequality and the fact that

the female gender is still regarded as a weaker gender easily manipulated and discarded. These

are some of the issues discussed in this project work.

In her book Purple Hibiscus, Ngozi Adichie took a literal look at the struggles of women who

end up in abusive relationships and how it impacts their lives and the people around them.

Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, forced into sex, or

otherwise abused by a man in her lifetime. More than 20% of women are reported to have been

abused by men to whom they live. The text we’re considering strived to name and define the

struggle of women in abusive relationships, which is one of the significant human problems in

the world. In the course of this study, we will be looking at how Adiche and Agary respectively

highlighted the struggles for equality by women and the problem of humanity in their respective
novels. The study also situates how female issues and those problems that face women are

diverse and need to be addressed.

1.5 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is to interrogate personal freedom and gender value in the novels, - Yellow

Yellow and Purple hibiscus. respectively written by Kaine Agary and Chimamanda Adichie,

which will serve as our illustration of the need for feminism hermeneutics which is inherent in

Adichie’s perception as a feminist writer—the concept which serves as the organizing principle

of our reading of both novels. This study, therefore, has the following objectives:

1. To portray how societal expectations, define individuals in the texts.

2. To give information on how the search for personal freedom and gender is described in

the texts.

3. To examine Adichie's Purple Hibiscus and issues of ideology in the constitution of the

Nigerian novel.

1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The questions that necessitate this research include:

1. How do societal expectations define Zilayefa's character portrayal in Kaine Agary's

Yellow Yellow and Beatrice's in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple hibiscus?

2. How does the search for personal freedom and gender affect human survival in society

using the texts as a reference?

 3. How does Adiche's Purple Hibiscus examine the issues of ideology in the constitution of

the Nigeria novel?

1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Perhaps the main significance of this research is the voice that we add to the oeuvre of critical

works on feminist literature, even though one could say we have trudged pass the ‘morning

yet on creation (or criticism)’ It may be considered as our response to the call by critics such as

Chinua Achebe, Nnolim Charles, and Chiweizu et al: “we hope that other African writers and

critics, and, indeed, all the participants in African literary culture, will join in this endeavor and

extend the range of our work” (Chiweizu et al xiii). As such this study helps draw significant

attention to the search for personal freedom and the need to define oneself. Therefore,

emphasizing gender and personal freedom on how they are used and portrayed in the texts Kaine

Agary's Yellow Yellow and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus.

1.8 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research is primarily a study of personal freedom and gender of Kaine Agary's Yellow

Yellow and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, using the feminist concept of the

writer (novelist) as eacher as the organizing principle. This study, however, is limited in that it

does not

attempt to answer many of the questions bordering on the complexity and multiple

determinations of feminist literature other than the ones that are related to the focus of the

analysis. No research can, hence this study does not, capture all the layers of meaning and
aesthetic value in both novels. We shall only examine some aspects of personal freedom and

gender in both novels

1.9 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

Due to the convoluted nature of African literature and the multiple dimensionality of this

study, a few theoretical frameworks will be used in the analysis of the aspects of the meaning

and aesthetics of both novels, namely, post-colonial theory and feminism and

any other theoretical framework in so far as these theories serve to validate the analysis of

the aspects of personal freedom and gender that is the crux of this research. The motivation for

the

use of variegated but related theories in this study is because it is in tandem with the

multiple dimensionality of Adichie’s concept of feminism. A brief explanation of

these theories—post-colonial theory and feminism—should suffice.

Postcolonial critical theory emerged out of developments within literary studies in the late

1970’s as a revolutionary theory which encompasses the cultural, political and economic

legacy of colonizers and the aftermath on the colonized (Peter and Childs 183). This theory,

which was formulated by intellectuals and activist such as Frantz Fanon, Edward Said,

Gayatri Spivak, Siva R. Kumar, Derek Gregory, Homi K. Babha, analyses colonialism and

imperialism and the subtle and overt ways it plays its power politics. Homi Bhabha captures

the focus of the theory when he notes:

 Postcolonial criticism bears witness to the unequal and uneven

forces of cultural representation involved in the contest for

political and social authority within the modern world order.

Postcolonial perspectives emerge from the colonial testimony of

Third World countries and the discourses of ‘minorities’ within the

geopolitical divisions of east and west, north and south. They

intervene in those ideological discourses of modernity that attempt

to give a hegemonic ‘normality’ to the uneven development and

the differential, often disadvantaged, histories of nations, races,

communities, peoples. They formulate their critical revisions

around issues of cultural difference, social authority, and political

discrimination in order to reveal the antagonistic and ambivalent

moments within the ‘rational notions’ of modernity. (437)

Some of the concepts which pertain to this theory, and which will be used as the rubric of

the analysis of the primary texts of this study include: Double Consciousness, Hybridity,

Colonialist Ideology, Eurocentricism, Othering, etc

The feminist critical theory is variegated; each variant conforming to the sensibilities and

culture of various women’s social orientation, although, as a theory, its development started

from the West (Europe). Perhaps beginning with the brilliant argument of Mary

Wollstonecraft in her A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and

Moral

Subjects, it has come to have variants (especially in Africa), including, but not limited to,

Womanism, Femalism, Motherism, Nego-ferminism and Stiwamism. Relatively recently,

Ezeigbo has developed a Nigerian variant, ‘Snail-Sense Feminism’, and Chimamanda Adichie

has tagged her not-so-different-from-the-others variant “happy femini[sm]”.6 It will be

unnecessary to explain all the variants of the theory of feminism, but to give definitions that

serve as common core within “a house divided”(1), to borrow the phrase of Nnolim Charles.

In this light, Ezeigbo’s comment on feminism in A Companion to the Novel is valid: “Feminism .

. . emerged to abolish [the] unhealthy status quo. It aimed to liberate women from the

stranglehold of the men, not necessarily to achieve equality between the two sexes, but to

gain more freedom, opportunity and spatial discourse for the women” (116). The ideology of

feminism is one that aims toward the transformation of women in the society, for, as

Acholonu captures it, “women must be encouraged to take keen interest in the destiny of

the country” (34). Patricia Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge outline the basic component of

the movement in their essay, “Contemporary Feminist Theory

Feminist theory is a generalized, wide-ranging system of ideas

about social life and human experience developed from a woman-

centered perspective. Feminist theory is woman-centered – or

women-centered – in three ways. First, its major “object” for

investigation, the starting point of all its investigation, is the

situation (or the situations) and experiences of women in society.

Second, it treats women as the central “subjects” in the

investigative

process; that is, it seeks to see the world from the distinctive

vantage points of women in the social world. Third, feminist

 theory is critical and activist on behalf of women—and thus, it

argues for human kind. (436)

It's important to note that the study will not be restricted to just these two novels, as references

will be made to other texts to enhance the study. The study, however, will be limited to the

framework of Feminist and post-colonial theories.

1.10 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this chapter has been able to set a path on the study that assert for personal

freedom and gender Kaine Agary's yellow yellow and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple

Hibiscus and has been able to discuss the background to the study, aim and objectives, the

definition of key terms, statement of the research problem, the scope of the study, the

significance of the study, methodology and the theoretical framework.