17th Annual Student Research Conference
Language & Literature
Fitting In: Traditional Values versus Colonial Modernism in Changes: A Love Story
Amy L. Shipp
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
In her novel Changes, Ama Ata Aidoo portrays a Ghanian society where the lives of women are restricted by the dominating male figures around them. Despite living in a postcolonial society, traditional values hold the three main women characters, Esi, Fusena and Opokuya, back from reaching their full potential. It is through these women that Aidoo shows the cultural pressures on women to conform to societal expectations of them. Internal struggles arise in the women as they try to find a balance between self-fulfillment and traditional values. This paper will examine the contradictions, complexities and conflicts underlying the choices they make in a novel that creates a realistic view of their world.
Keywords: Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes, Postcolonialism, Feminism, Esi, Opokuya, Fusena, Ghana
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 45-5
Location: VH 1304
Time: 4:45