Gender in the dock

Abstract

It happens sometimes that culture or the tradition to which we belong weighs heavy on our shoulders, and distresses us to an extent that we lose all sense of morals and drift into decadence. In reference to literature, moral decadence designates a corrosive process or situation of deterioration and decline in society’s ethical codes and sexual morality. In her perspective to dismantle the patriarchal culture, Amma Darko exposes the moral decline to which her society is prey and points an accusing finger at the gender-oriented system. The purpose of this article is to examine how gender and the standards that go with it can influence social depravity and the mounting loss of moral values among individuals. Stressing the writer’s objectivity and her catharsis-based approach as therapy, this analysis of Amma Darko’s Faceless and Not Without Flowers allows to have an off-screen look at the hideous consequences of gender prejudice. As they want or fail to meet the demands of the sexist ideology, both male and female, central and secondary characters are revealed to find solace in illicit deeds and amorality.