WOMEN’S QUEST FOR PERSONAL HAPPINESS IN CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE’S PURPLE HIBISCUS AND LOLA SHONEYIN’S THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI’S WIVES

Abstract

Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives Of Baba Segi’s Wives and Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus have been studied as narratives dealing with wives’ quests for socio-cultural and economic freedom which are central to personal happiness. The novels present wives are suffer different degrees of denial in their matrimonial homes. One of such wives is Beatrice, Mama in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. She is a full housewife who has no form of business that generates any income for her. This places her at the mercy of her cruel husband. Papa her husband sees life from only his point of view this consequently make his wife to depend on him. She is denied socio-economic power to seek her personal happiness. She relies solely on her husband to survive and most times her husband batters her for he sees her as an extension of him that needs to be tamed. The wives in Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives Of Baba Segi’s Wives also go through different levels of denial. First, Baba Segi is impotent and he does not know. He mounts undue pressure on his wives such that they lose their social relevance whenever the issue of children is raised. Again, Mama Segi loses her place as soon as her husband marries two new wives. The condition deteriorates when the fouth wife is married. The women cry out bitterly when they lose their right dosage of sex they need to stay happy. They seek to eliminate Bolanle who they see as intruders. This scenario points to the fact that sex is the ultimate for some women. This claim is based on the fact that the Baba Segi’s wives see a high sense of emotional and social denial with the Bolanle’s arrival.