Decoding Madness in the Novels of Black Women Writers: Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Jones’ Eva’s Man, Bâ’s Scarlet Song, and Dangarembga’s Nervous Condition

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the similarities between black female characters’ madness in male-dominated society. The first part is given to a comparison between Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Gayl Jones’ Eva’s Man with emphasis on the appearance of madness, silence, and grotesqueness in the female protagonists. In the second part, I will attempt to explore the madness resulting in the overflow of rage and fury in Mariama Bâ’s Scarlet Song, and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Condition. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola, who is eager to get her blue eyes, turns out to be the victim of obsession on the white beauty. In Eva’s Man, Eva, who castrates a man as a way of defiance, can be seen as a victim of sexual abuse. In Scarlet Song, Mireille’s madness let her strength to wield the knife against her husband. In Nervous Condition, Nyasha chooses a self-destructive way and, eventually, goes mad. The focus of this essay is to examine how and why women go mad by exploring the oppressions of social conventions and traditional value systems that force women to bear passive victimization. Thus, I hope to unravel how the female’s madness indicates the woman’s plight in male-oriented society, exposing critical and nervous conditions of women. This essay proposes two arguments in order to decode the collective madness of woman. First, the madness reflects repressed female desire and deep fury. Second, it can be understood as a way of powerful resistance against man. I do not wish to jump into a rash conclusion that the female madness is a regressive symptom of repression or a challenging weapon of liberation. Because the female madness embraces the two antithetic concepts simultaneously like the front and back of a coin. The madness is one of ‘the most desperate gesture’ of women, and it demonstrates how women have been victimized by repressive social discriminations. Yet women struggle to liberate themselves from the organized oppressions of patriarchal social structures.