Tag Archives: gender

A Progress of Female Role

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The two sisters in Ama Ata Aidoo’s story have two different attitudes toward men and marriage. Connie is the older sister who has the traditional marital values in her mind. She is aware of her husband, James, “is running after a new girl” (997). “New” means it’s not the first time, but she chooses to cry all the time and insists that she loves her husband and she “is not interested in any other man”.(997) It’s the traditional point of view that when a woman marry a man, she is subject to keep the lifelong monogamous relationship. So she is loyal and obedient to her husband. But her younger sister, Mercy, thinks men have affairs with other girls because the women like her older sister “allow them to behave the way they do instead of seizing some freedom themselves”, (997) and she criticizes her older sister that “it’s women like you who keep all of us down”. (997) Mercy is young and beautiful, and has many pursuers. She is trying to seize some freedoms herself. She tires of doing her work and also doesn’t intent to be tied with a random fine man. Her sister thinks she should just marry a normal good man, but she chooses to get benefits from those old big men. She is going out with Mensar-Arthur, who is the Member of Parliament, old and rich, and have many wives and girlfriends. After the coup, Mensar-Arthur is in jail, and Mercy has affair with another married, old and rich public man-Captain Ashey.

Surprisingly, there seems only Connie is the one who thinks Mercy has relationship with these old and depraved public man is ruining herself. She knows their departed parents will not like to see it. The two rich and old public man have many wives and girlfriends mean there are many girls like Mercy, decides not to have the traditional way of marriage and pursuit material needs. Additionally, Connie’s husband, James, also thinks Connie should encourage Mercy to get benefits from the rich guy and hope to take some advantages from it. I think these show the society thought changes at that time in Ghana.

I don’t think Mercy represent a modern female image and I don’t agree what she does. But she represents a kind of sexual liberation at that time. It’s a significant progress to realize the equality of women and men. Men can have different wives and girlfriends, women can also choose men and get benefits from them. Fidelity is based on man and woman both loyal and equal to each other. Women like Mercy are no longer bounded and restricted by lifelong monogamous relationship. And they can choose their own partners. The development and changes of a relationship is also not effected by other people.

Two Sisters with Different Perspectives

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When reading Ama Ato Aidoo’s “Two Sisters,” what really stood out were the transitions between different perspectives. The piece starts off with a third person point of view but occasionally briefly switches to Connie’s point of view. Examples of this are when we get glimpses of Connie’s inner thoughts when she realizes that Mercy has a new pair of shoes despite her financial problems and when she questions Mercy’s choice in seeing a man who had many affairs already by thinking, “You said yourself a little while ago that you wanted a man of your own. That man belongs to so many women already…” (Aidoo 998). From these two instances, it seems as though Connie is the voice of reason or morality in the piece. She criticizes Mercy’s choices of going after a man who already had many other women already and of using him for her financial benefit. These tiny moments of revelation are important in questioning the choices that Mercy makes, especially at the end of the piece when she starts seeing a man who already has a family. However, there is one part in the piece that seems to contradict this. When Mensar-Arthur bought her a gift in an attempt to appease her, she accepted it. This weakened moment raises the question of whether Connie was truly representative of morality in the piece. If she was, then why would the author decide to include Connie’s act of hypocrisy?

The difference between the two sisters can also represent different views of society and life. Mercy has a more modern take because she seems to stray from traditional views and ideas. Instead of marrying and settling down with a husband and a child like Connie, Mercy goes around dating men who are in controversial circumstances and are beneficial to her materialistic self. She even says, “…it’s just that women allow them to behave the way they do instead of seizing some freedom themselves” (Aidoo 997). From this, we can see that Mercy’s view of gender roles in society is that she believes that women should take things upon themselves at making decisions and that women are able to be manipulative and controlling. In contrast to that, Connie simply leans back and waits for change. For example, when there was the coup, although she  wanted Mensar-Arthur out of Mercy’s life, she didn’t do anything except for pray for that to happen. After the coup, “…the one who greeted the new order with undisguised relief was Connie. She is not really a demonstrative person but it was obvious from her eyes that she was happy” (Aidoo 1002). This supports the idea that Connie takes a more traditional standpoint in society where she doesn’t proactively stand out. Instead, she portrays the image of the woman who stays at home taking care of the child while waiting for the husband to return home from work and expected to stay with him regardless of whether he had an affair or not.