Analysis Of One Is Enough By Gay Wilentz

Amaka, who represents the younger and educated generation, accepts motherhood but does not believe it is the only goal in life and does not think the lack of motherhood should detract from a person as a worthwhile individual. The conflict between the views of the older and younger generations can be attributed to the differences between Christian or European and traditional Igbo beliefs in a changing world. Gay Wilentz suggests that the conversation between Amaka and her mother on this subject indicates a breakdown between the educated and uneducated but points out that the mother’s knowledge is respected in the exchange. A discussion about whether Amaka should marry Izu also indicates a difference in thinking between age-groups. Amaka’s mother
The two earlier heroines appear happy with their later decisions in life, but there is ambiguity about some actions they have taken. With Amaka, however, there is no confusion at the end of the novel. It is evident that she is sure about the choices she has made in her life. The reader feels joy, freedom, and finality in her words and actions.She represents independence for women within an evolving post-colonial society. Nwapa, through her narrator, also suggests that tolerance must exist within the community, and people must respect each other’s individual choices while acknowledging differences and difficulties. Nwapa allows Amaka and the other female characters to privilege themselves in newly emerging, evolving levels of consciousness while establishing their dignity and earning respect from people in their rural hometowns as well as Lagos. Thus, Nwapa has successfully navigated the options for women in Igbo society and is advocating balance and diversity within the community. An adjusting traditional consciousness and an emerging contemporary consciousness form the driving force that creates the novel's dialogue within self and between self, family, and society all embedded in the narrator and guided by the implied author that has come full circle from Efuru to One Is Enough. The author simultaneously
She projects her ambitions into her children or husband. The wicked mother-in-law is the frustrated mother. Woman changes her financial status upwards by marrying a rich man, abdicates self-hood as a wife before she will be happy in her dominance as mother. Ironically, the wicked mother-in-law is the converse image of the young wife. They are both aspects of one female self, but because they do not recognize their identical destiny they are locked in futile combat, while the husband is the eternal winner, complacent, venal, manipulating the women with a heart for their economic gains. Nwapa sustains the image of female existence as the weaver of spells money. She is successful economically. In One Is Enough Amaka realizes the dead end of her marriage and her combat for her husband’s favors. She breaks free to realize