This paper presents a critical review of Emecheta’s novel, focusing on the similarities between the plot and the author’s personal life experiences.
The paper begins with an outline of the life of Buchi Emecheta and a list of the novel’s main themes, highlighting the connection between the issues raised by the author and her personal experience of these issues. The novel’s plot is summarized and the paper then moves on to look at some of its main themes in more depth. Emecheta’s views on marriage and gender in her society are dealt with and the concept of married life in the rural areas is compared with married life in the former capital city of Lagos. The character of Aku-nnaa is analyzed in terms of her needs and desires. The paper concludes with a discussion of the author’s main aims in writing the novel and the messages contained within it.
The lives of some authors cannot be separated form their works. This is the case of Buchi Emecheta. She was born in Nigeria in 1944 of Ibuza background. She married in 1962 and went to London with her husband and the two lived on his student fellowship.While in England, they had five children under extremely difficult circumstances and finally divorced. Emencheta found herself in London, a divorcee, black, single mother of five children, immigrant, on welfare, in public housing, and going to school to get a degree in library science. In The Bride Price Emencheta explores the fundamental issue of marriage, control of one’s own life and own destiny, the point of view of many different women, and contradictory positions taken by these same women.