ABSTRACT
The study has proposed a narrative grammar for reading Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Fragments, and Why Are We So Blest? A narrative grammar is a distinct set of models and narrative categories to analyze a story. Tzvetan Todorov, Claud Levi- Strauss and Vladimir Propp are major proponents of this theory. Each uses a personal GRAMMAR, that is, a distinct set of models and narrative categories to analyze the “story”. This concept involves constants and variables of the story where the variables are the characters and the constants are the functions or actions of the characters. In his Morphology of the Folktale (1928). Prop examined many Russian folktales and recognized common themes within them. He broke down the stories into units. These units according to Propp may be found in the structure of many folktales. In a similar vein, this study has propounded a grammar with the pattern that emerged from Ayi Kwei Armah’s first three novels by looking at three crucial elements: plot, character and theme. The study discovered that elements such as a hapless protagonist, corrupt environment and the absence of a resolutionat the end of each story, just to mention a few, are constant features of the plots of the novels under study in spite of the slight variations identified in each plot. In terms of character, outstanding constants such as forces working for and against the protagonists were identified. In all the novels, there are more powerful characters working against the progress of the protagonists than those for them. The fate of the protagonists also becomes increasingly worse as the story progresses from The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born till the protagonist dies in Why Are We So Blest? An outstanding variable identified in characterization is with Modin in Why Are We So Blest? Similar themes such as corruption, greed, colonial mentality manifesting in the cargo cult mentality, racism and slavery are constants in the novels under study. With slight variations in their manifestations. For
example,the theme of corruption in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and Why Are We So Blest? Armah lashes out at politicians who use their positions for their selfish interest, but focuses on the lazy attitude of the citizens such as Asante – Smith and Brempong, towards their work in Fragments.
The thesis concludes with the grammar that in Armah’s novels under study, a hapless protagonist who lives in a corrupt environment becomes an anti-hero and is unable to overcome the odds because there are forces working for and against him. This makes the end always negative. The study concludes with recommendations for further studies.
TABLE OF CONTENT
TABLE OF CONTENT
DECLARATION……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ii
DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… iii
ACKNOLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………………………………………… iv
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. vi
TABLE OF CONTENT…………………………………………………………………………………………………… viii
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM…………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY…………………………………………………………………………………… 1
Research Questions……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2
Scope of Research……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2
Significance of the study…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2
BACKGROUND……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
ESTABLISHING THAT ARMAH’S FIRST THREE NOVELS TELLS THE SAME STORY WITH THE SAME CHARACTERS…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
Limitations of the study………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9
LITERATURE ON ARMAH’S WORKS………………………………………………………………………. 10
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK………………………………………………………………………………… 23
CHAPTER ONE…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 26
WHY ARE WE SO BLEST?…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 42
The man [The Beautyful Ones]…………………………………………………………………………………… 52
Baako [Fragments]…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 55
Modin [Why Are We?]……………………………………………………………………………………………… 58
Naana [Fragments]…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 71
Naita [Why Are We?]……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 76
Koomson [The Beautiful Ones]………………………………………………………………………………….. 79
Brempong [Fragments]…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 82
Oyo [The Beautiful Ones]………………………………………………………………………………………….. 86
Efua [Fragments]……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 89
CHAPTER THREE…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 94
THEMES……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 94
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 142
INTRODUCTION
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The term Narratology was coined in the French (Narratologie) by narratologist Tzvetan Todorov in his seminal book Grammar of the Decameron (1969). It seeks to isolate the components of a narrative to facilitate individual study of each element that makes up the narrative. In other words, narratology is a study of factors that operate in a narrative. Following the example of Propp and Todorov, this study is proposing a narrative grammar for the study of Armah’s ‘story.’ Is there a single story unit embedded in the different plots of all of Armah’s novels where the same character-role is presented in every story and the same subject irrespective the theme?
Ayi Kwei Armah’s works have been subjected to various reviews by critics and scholars but my findings reveal that there is very little work on his books from a narratological perspective. My thesis is proposing a narrative grammar for all Ayi Kwei Armah’s novels based upon the thesis that all Armah’s novels tell the same story with the same character-roles and the same subjects.
The purpose of this study is to:
- Ascertain whether Ayi Kwei Armah is writing one Great story in his first three novels.
- Identify an emerging pattern through plot, character and theme.
- Use the emerging pattern to propose a grammar for Armah’s first three novels.
The research questions address the concerns of the study:
- Is Ayi Kwei Armah telling one Great story in his first three novels?
- What pattern can be identified through plot, character and theme?
- Can the identified pattern be used to propose a grammar for Armah’s first three novels?
The study will be based on the first three novels of Ayi Kwei Armah. The reason for choosing Armah’s first three novels for the research is based on the fact that the study intends to propose a grammar for the entire corpus of Armah’s works. It therefore aims at starting with The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Fragments and Why Are We So Blest? so that the grammar proposed can be used as a model for reading the rest of Armah’s works.
Armah’s works have enjoyed a lot scholarly attention. This study conducts a structural analysis of Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Fragments and Why Are We So Blest? as a case study. The study observes a standard story structure for the novels under study in which certain constants and variables are present in
every novel. The research reveals that whether consciously or unconsciously, Armah writes with a particular formula in mind. It helps to provide a grammar with which the rest of Armah’s works can be read. Beyond that, this study should further enrich the already extensive study on Armah.
ESTABLISHING THAT ARMAH’S FIRST THREE NOVELS TELLS THE SAME STORY WITH THE SAME CHARACTERS.
Ayi Kwei Armah is very famous for his uniqueness as a writer. Most of his novels are centered on social ills in Ghana and Africa as a whole. Armah’s sole purpose of writing is not to skillfully arrange words but to use his works to change Africa’s social realities for the better. Though Armah’s vision is one of unified Africa, he writes vehemently of the psychological effects of colonialism on the people of contemporary Ghana and Africa. The gem of Armah’s novels is present in the themes of his early stories and essays: Africa’s continuing oppression under the mystic of independence and helpless entrapment in a cycle of neocolonial dependency; the failure of human reciprocity and connectedness under the pressure of a manipulatory system of relationships; and the renewal only of destruction and despair in place of an awaited social, political and spiritual regeneration of a postcolonial world. With the dawn of independence, Armah expresses his shock at the realization that independence was just a fellow-traveler of both materialism and Westernization followed closely by political corruption. Even though after independence, power passed from the colonizers to “the sons of the nation”, the tragedy and the irony was that power was not being used for the benefit of all but for the privileged few. There is disillusionment and despair when Armah realizes that there is no difference in driving out the
slave masters since the newly installed political elite are acting out the same process of rapid decay and corruption. Armah therefore uses his country as a society infested with an epidemic spread by a few powerful people represented by cabinet ministers such as Koomson in The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born and civil servants such as Brempong in the Fragments. There is emphasis that the decay and halting of theonward march of the African revolution in many African countries stems from an excessive lust for material goods with which the privileged few want to surround themselves.
Outside of Armah’s focus on African empowerment and liberation, a close reading of his first three novels reveals that Armah is telling one story in three novels. These three novels are interconnected through the same story line, the same characters and the same themes. The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born is generally considered a satirical attack on the Ghanaian society during Nkrumah’s regime and the period immediately after independence in the 1960s. It portrays the independent state of Ghana, revealing a society whose aspirations have slid into disillusionment. In place of the “greatly beautiful” things expected from independence, we are shown the stark and ugly reality that is embarrassingly far from those former ideals. Leaders who shouted against the enslaving habits of Europe are perceived to use the same enslaving attitudes. The central issue in the first novel is that disillusion is the only reality from faith invested in leaders and one stands the chance of being greatly condemned if one chooses to despise greed and possessiveness.
Fragments tells the story of Baako, a “been-to” (a person who has come from abroad) who comes back home with trepidation as to what he will discover or uncover. He is anxious of what he will do with himself and the expectations of the people around him. He is confronted with the forces that drive the notion and thought of his society when a few minutes after his arrival into
the country the sister of a friend he had met whilst emplaned to Ghana told him that he did not look like a “been-to”. Furthermore, less than 24 hours later, a lady friend of his and his mother asked to be wheeled out when his car arrives. Yet Baako had his values; values he held in high esteem, such as prompt response to issues and efficiency. And these are the very things that the civil service within which he was finally employed did not do. Unable to handle his growing frustration, the demands from his family, the diametrically opposing views (his and society’s) et cetera, Baako finally cracks and is bundled and dumped at a psychiatric hospital.
Why Are We So Blest? tells the story of Modin Dofu, an African student studying in the US, who decides to return to Africa after becoming disillusioned with his experience with Western education. He brings his white girlfriend Aimée Reitch. Modin’s return to Africa proves disastrous for him. Ultimately the paradox of his situation: his rejection of Western values vis-à- vis his involvement with Aimée Reitch, eventually destroys him.
A careful study of the narrative structures of the three novels reveals a structural pattern embedded in the very foundation of each of the stories. In The Beautiful Ones, we are introduced to a nameless man who sets himself apart and does all he can, not to involve himself in the corrupt practices of the society in which he finds himself in spite of the pressure from his family and friends. The “man”, in The Beautyful Ones is seen again in Fragments. In the latter novel, though he is given a name he has the same disposition: loneliness coupled with an unwillingness to give in to the widespread corrupt practices of his society just like the “man” in The Beautyful Ones.The “Man” in The Beautyful Ones shares similar characteristics with Baako in Fragments. Just like the “Man”, Baako rejects the dishonorable path set for him by his family and society. His struggle with the corrupt and materialistic nature of his family and society leaves him so disillusioned that he is seen as the odd one. Modin is not different from the “man” and Baako. He
also faces his own share of disillusionment and disappointments due to his rejection of certain societal values. The connection between the first three novels is seen in the attitudes of the protagonists. There is that feeling of loneness and alienation which “The Man”, Baako and Modin seem to feel. “Leaving home for school always. The search for the knowledge should not be synonymous with increasing alienation and loneliness” (Why Are We? p. 32). Here, Modin, just like Baako, leaves his home country Ghana tostudy in the United States. Modin’s feeling of loneliness is also similar to that of“the Man” who feels lonely and alienated even amongst his own family and friends. And this kind of loneliness is what Baako feels right from the beginning of Fragments till the end where it drives him insane. Modin, just like Baako, leaves his native Ghana with the hope of improving his education abroad. He wins a scholarship to study for his first degree at Harvard after his secondary education at Achimota. He is very optimistic about making good use of the opportunities opened to him. Out of sheer fanaticism and naivety, he does not heed to the advice of the one who could have saved him. But slowly and painfully, the truth of the reality dawns on him. Even though not much is said of Baako’s stay abroad, we are aware that he returns home with much optimism, just as Modin equally abandons his studies to join a revolution with the hope of a positive change in Africa.
The Man, Baako and Modin, share a similar distaste for colonialism. “The guide told us it was extremely important for the president to live exactly where the British governor had lived. I did not understand why, but this was not one of the facts one would have to know for the higher cert” (Why Are We? p. 76). Of all the places that the president could live after independence, why would he choose the castle just as the colonial masters did? And as if living there is not enough, he even lives exactly the way the colonial government had lived. This is Armah’s ironic way of saying that nothing has changed for Africa after independence. This goes a long way to
reiterate the story of slavery and independence which was started in The Beautiful Ones. The story of the betrayal by politicians after the struggle for the independence in The Beautiful Ones is reiterated in Fragments and Why Are We?
Alienation seems to be a peculiar feature with the protagonists in these novels. In Fragments when Naana narrates the libation and preparations before Baako’s departure, we are made aware of his lonely state. “A human being alone – is a thing more sad than any lost animal – and nothing destroys the soul like its loneliness” (Fragments p. 16). This same quality is reiterated by Modin. “Leaving home for school always. The search for knowledge should not be synonymous with increasing alienation and loneness” (Why Are We? p. 32). Here, both Baako and Modin are talking about leaving their home country and the more striking similarity is their state of loneliness which they describe in detail from the very beginning till the end of the novel. “The thirst for knowledge therefore becomes perverted into the desire for getting close to the alien getting out of the self. Result: loneliness as a way of life” (Why Are We? p. 33). Baako suffers a similar fate of loneliness and alienation.
He talked very precisely of the things worrying him like a doctor probing into a diseased body, locating a node of sickened nerve; all his talk was of a loneliness from which he was finding it impossible to break of the society he had come back to and the many ways in which it made him feel his loneliness (Fragments p. 149).
The kind of feeling of loneliness which the Man is seen battling with is what Baako struggles with so much that he has to seek help from a psychiatrist to help deal with it.
In terms of characterization, it becomes obvious that as the story progresses from The Beautyful Ones, the fate of the protagonist becomes worse. In The Beautiful Ones, the Man suffers humiliation in the hands of his family and Koomsom simply because he refuses to be attracted to the shiny things that will fulfill the desire of his materialistic family. Even though he does
nothing to prevent others from being corrupt and remains a passive observer to the corrupt practices that go on around him, he is finally vindicated in the end where people who were involved in corruption such as Koomson get their well-deserved punishment. The fate of Baako in Fragments is worse compared to that of “the Man”. Even though Baako does not remain as passive as the Man in The Beautyful Ones, he tries in his own small way to challenge the status- quo. He puts up a form of resistance to fight the system and tries to cause a change, unlike “the Man” who is completely passive. “What I went to learn is different’ he said’ well, there won’t be too much to do. I wish you had brought a tux, or at least a suit though” it would have been fine” I am not an ape” (Fragments p. 144). Right from home when his family is seen making unnecessary materialistic demands and forcing him to act in a corrupt way which is contrary to his African ideals, he puts up a resistance. Much to the annoyance and disappointment of Efua, Baako refuses to put on a suit for the naming ceremony of his nephew and bears the consequence of not being made the master of ceremonies anymore.
