Girl Victim-Images: An Iconographical Analysis of Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price

Abstract

This study aims to analyse girl victim-images through figures in Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price. This work is carried out through the application of Erwin Panofsky’s iconography analysis that involves three levels which are the pre-iconographical description, the iconographical analysis, and the iconological interpretation. This research paper evaluates the field of the novel as a literary genre especially the theme and character through figures in the production of The Bride Price. The result has shown that Buchi Emecheta instils the Ibo tradition and, by extension, African traditional treatments and handling of a girl. The girl endures humiliation, oppression, domination, gender discrimination, and tragic death after her father's death. She is forced to accept the husband that his people choose for her, and the bride price must be paid. When it is not paid, the girl never survives after the birth of her first child. She suffers from numerable atrocities in the hands of a man who is the father's relative. Despite the suffering that the girl endures, the symbolic nature of the figures' elements, such as the sun and the branches, sends the message of resilience, hope, and positivity.