Efuru Analysis

When Efuru leaves Eneberi, however, she challenges the commonly accepted notion of women. As a worshipper of Uhamiri, “Efuru escapes from any direct male control. That Efuru now sleeps soundly” (Efu: 221). It indicates that Efuru’s sleepless nights belong to the past. This stands for the fact that she has finally found what she has been looking for happiness and fulfillment in her all life. Additionally, she enjoys social recognition. By thus arguing, Nwapa writes back to the notion that “strong women are the source of all evil” (15). This strong woman may only expect a woeful life. Moreover, she applauds what they are trying to undermine: women’s strength, power, and autonomy. There is a note particularly about the insincerity of a so-called
The small girl, having finished her chore, sits down to a meal and Ajanupu shouts at her again “You don’t sit like that when you are eating. Put your legs together. You are a woman”(45). Even her mistress is not spared: Remember, Ajanupu advises Efuru, “She is a girl and will marry one day. If you don’t bring her up well, nobody will marry her. By the way, can she cook now?” (45). Good upbringing, according to patriarchal ideals, entails women learning the arts of submission, cookery, and service to a husband. Without these, they will inevitably face divorce (125). It is pertinent to mention here that Nigerian men nearly always prefer their women plump, since they say that when they hold a woman they like to hold flesh, not a bag of bones. The newly circumcised girls are branded feasting girls. Their mothers, in turn, become mothers of feasting girls. The young women are treated like erotic princesses, for whom the body rather than the brain is of primary concern. At the end of the fattening period, they visit the market where they put themselves on display for the admiration of the whole community. In some instances, depending on the means of the family, they go back and forth from the home to market several times a day, and each time differently adorned. They are showered
Finally, Efuru’s social growth into a traditional role then into independence is linked with a cosmic issue. The novel as a whole envisions growth itself as part of the continuing , universal changes which are dictated by time(the cycle of birth, life, and death) and which are implicit in those rituals and conventions (relating to puberty, marriage, and parenthood), through which men and women are prepared their sexual roles in