The silences that exist in literature today around gendered norms, as discussed in Stephane Robolin’s essay, “Gendered Hauntings: The Joys of motherhood, Interpretive Acts, and Postcolonial Theory” are reverberated in The Joys of Motherhood not as omissions, in fact, but punctuation marks, nudging the reader to acknowledge the existence of woman not for pity of their suffering, but for validation of the foundation and raison d’etre they provide for capitalism.
Through a close read of Buchi Emecheta’s novel, “The Joys of Motherhood” one can come to consider the style and subplots, Nnu Ego’s own tragedy, and the political/economic realities exposed as a combination of factors that forfeit the woman's esteem in exchange for the success of the capitalist, damning the entire colonial system.
In Lagos, it is the woman's duty to care for the home, the family, and provide sexual pleasure and reproductive labor to the husband. This objective idea is called out early in the novel, as when Nnu Ego’s new friend simplifies to her, “We woman mind the home. Not our husbands” (53) the subjective truth, that because, “their manhood has been taken away from them” (53) they must assuage the …show more content…
As she discusses her lack of friendships, worrying, and in essence the minimizing of herself (Emecheta, 247) she acknowledges her position. When Naife is put in jail, Nnu Ego realizes he will never forgive her, his families failings always fall on Nnu Ego, and thus, she is moved to leave Lagos, stepping out of liminality and returning to her village (Emecheta, 248). Her realization that “she would be better off in Ibuzu” directs back at the harmful limitations colonial liminality has brought her. The promise of a richer life entirely thwarted by her husbands, and by extension, the colonized mans, means to capitalism, is damned, as Nnu Ego returns to
Through a close read of Buchi Emecheta’s novel, “The Joys of Motherhood” one can come to consider the style and subplots, Nnu Ego’s own tragedy, and the political/economic realities exposed as a combination of factors that forfeit the woman's esteem in exchange for the success of the capitalist, damning the entire colonial system.
In Lagos, it is the woman's duty to care for the home, the family, and provide sexual pleasure and reproductive labor to the husband. This objective idea is called out early in the novel, as when Nnu Ego’s new friend simplifies to her, “We woman mind the home. Not our husbands” (53) the subjective truth, that because, “their manhood has been taken away from them” (53) they must assuage the …show more content…
As she discusses her lack of friendships, worrying, and in essence the minimizing of herself (Emecheta, 247) she acknowledges her position. When Naife is put in jail, Nnu Ego realizes he will never forgive her, his families failings always fall on Nnu Ego, and thus, she is moved to leave Lagos, stepping out of liminality and returning to her village (Emecheta, 248). Her realization that “she would be better off in Ibuzu” directs back at the harmful limitations colonial liminality has brought her. The promise of a richer life entirely thwarted by her husbands, and by extension, the colonized mans, means to capitalism, is damned, as Nnu Ego returns to