The Quest for Male-Children in Buchi Emehceta’s The Joy of Motherhood and Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah

Abstract

The desire to perpetuate lineages makes some African families crave for male children. Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood unfolds this urge in a perceptible manner. The study, therefore, explores the male and female attitudes to the quest for male children. It portrays the desperate search and yearning for male children in the novel. Also, the study critically analyses the effects of the hankering on the female child who discovers that her parents desired a male child before her birth and would have preferred a male child. Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah uncovers the effects palpably.  Thus, the study shows both the negative and positive upshot of the incontrovertible desire.