Week 13: Discussion Question for Aidoo's Changes

Please provide your in-depth interpretation and analysis on the questions (at least 100 words per Discussion question #1, #2, and #3). Please try to include textual evidence (direct quotes along with the Act and Scene #) in your answer.

Discussion Question #1 for Aidoo’s Changes (1991, pp. 101-136)  

Why did Fusena drive off to Ali's elders' place after Ali informed her of his plan to take a second wife? What do Ali's elders in Nima think of Ali's decision? Despite their initial disapproval of Ali's decision, they decide to support Ali. What do they try to protect by siding with Ali's decision? Why does Fusena end up saying "yes" (107) to Ali's decision? Aidoo in the novel raises a question of whether practicing polygamy is necessary in modern Ghanaian society, because "Now, school or no school, no woman understands" (106). Why does polygamy persist in changed society? What has not changed for women in Ghanaian society, and what suppresses Fusena's voice in her marriage

2.

Why is Esi's grandmother [Nana] disappointed with Esi's decision to become Ali's second wife? Nana tells Esi: "A man always gained in stature through any way he chose to associate with a woman. . . A woman has always been diminished in her association with a man" (109-110). What does Nana try to tell Esi by saying this? Why does Esi's grandmother tell Esi about many young women in her days who felt her wedding day was more like "a funeral of the self" (110)? What is Esi’s grandmother trying to say here? What does marriage mean to women in Ghanaian society? Does marriage as a social institution oppress women in Ghanaian society? 

Discussion Question #3 for Aidoo’s Changes (1991, pp. 101-136)  

After encountering initial disapproval from her grandmother and mother about her decision to become Ali's second wife, Esi questions the education she received in foreign lands, and she feels that she is in "the dangerous confusion" (114). To what extent has Esi's modern Western education affected her view of love and marriage? Why did Ali not follow the traditional procedure for polygamy with Esi? Were Esi and Ali influenced by the "white man's customs" (115) in their decision to love marriage? Is romantic love a dangerous Western idea for Ghanaian women? Or, is the notion of marriage based on love just an idea (or an ideal) that cannot be fulfilled in modern Ghanaian society? If so, why?