WOMEN, 'NAMELESS TINY DOT IN THE DATA': A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADICHIE'S ZIKORA AND PURPLE HIBISCUS

Abstract

Increasing number of issues about women in any given society are alarming and require to be studied. It involves all kinds of women – the old and the young, the ugly and the beautiful, the educated, and the uneducated. Such issues are usually noticed between men and women in relationships who claim to love themselves. Some African feminists include Chimamada Ngozi Adichie, Akachi Adimorah-Ezigbo, Mariana Bà, Molara Ogundipe and others. Most of their female characters especially their female protagonists go through devastating experiences. Using trauma theory as the theoretical framework, this work explores issues that Adichie’s females encounter in her selected texts and which make them ‘nameless tiny dots in the data’. To fully analyze this, the researcher looks at these women’s’ behaviour from the social and economic contexts using the content analysis approach of qualitative research method for data collection and analysis. This study finds out that women’s opinion and feelings are mostly not respected causing them emotional stress which they tend to bear alone. They are disconnected from the society as a result of the stress and trauma they go through. This work concludes that women are not nameless tiny dots in the data but full fledged human beings who are roles models if treated well and so must be treated and accorded respect they deserve by the male folk.