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What Are The Oppression Of Women In Nervous Conditions

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Madison Grimes May, 30th 2017 Lit-comp 1/2 Nervous Conditions Essay “Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel Nervous Conditions tells the story of Tambu, a 14 year old girl living in Rhodesia, and her relatives and their struggle to liberate themselves from oppression, specifically focusing on the oppression of women. Consequently, the novel mostly centers on Tambu’s female relatives; Nyasha and Lucia. These three women are oppressed through the novel and treated as objects, they are there to please the men. Nothing they earn goes to benefit them, and they are not supposed to express their opinions. The narrator of the novel, Tambu, is a hardworking, intelligent 14 year old girl who wants a proper education. After her brother's death she has an opportunity for an education however, because she is a woman, it's not just that simple because the men in her family get the upper hand. She leaves her home and goes the live with her uncle. While living with her uncle, aunt, and cousins she faces many problems around her gender. On page 15 she is told, “Can you cook books and feed them to your husband? Stay home with your mother and learn to cook, clean and grow vegetables”. She is being told that she does not need an …show more content…

Tambu admires Nyasha and how she looks at conflicts as a way to improve her knowledge of herself instead of a problem. Nyasha is often arguing with her dad about the way she dresses and acts. “‘You are the daughter,’ Chido informed her. ‘There are some things you must never do.’” (pg 117) Chido, Tambu’s brother is telling her the things she wants to do does not fit into her “gender box”. Along with that, there is a constant theme of saying she is dressed “too slutty for the friday night dances, and the way she dances is too sexual.” All of that comes back to embarrass her father babamukuru, the headmaster of the

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