2. This writing is an analysis of The Girl Who Can by Ama Ata Aidoo. The
purpose of this writing is to analyze the conflict in the story. The writer uses intrinsic
theory and close reading method. The writer finds that the conflict can come from
the expectation of the society. In conclusion, the conflicts in this story are mostly
come from the expectation of the society.
Abstract
3. This story tells us about the suffer and the struggle of Ghananian women to
find their place in society. The story also tells us about a little girl who should
struggle to fulfill the expectation from her family and society.
Introduction
4. Ama Ata Aido or Christina Ama Aidoo
was born on March, 23 1942 in Abeadzi Kyiakor,
near Saltpond, Gold coast, now Ghana. Aidoo is
a Ghananian author. Aidoo grew up in a royal
household with a clear sense of African
traditions. She studied at the University of
Ghana and became a writer at Stanford and
Harvard University in the US. As a writer her
works are mostly focuses on the deception of
the role of African woman in modern society
and African disaporic identity. She wrote many
literary works and one of them is The Girl Who
Can and Other Stories written in 1999.
Biography of
Ama Ata Aidoo
5. The Girl Who Can is a story about a seven years old, Adjoa, who does not
good at communication. She was born with long and thin legs. She should see her
mother and her grandmother, Nana, arguing over her imperfect legs everyday. Nana
always complains to Adjoa mother for her having a daughter with long and thin legs.
In Ghana the women suffer due to the patriarchy, having a son is much better than
having a daughter. But, in the end Adjoa can prove to her grandmother that even she
has imperfect legs, she can achieve something great.
Summary of the story
6. In this story there are two types of conflict, that are internal conflict and external conflict.
1. The internal conflict
The internal conflict happen between Adjoa with herself, she has a difficulty in
communication so it is hard for her to speak up her mind to her grandmother. She does not know
whether she should keep quiet and not to say any of thing that come into her mind, or say them
and get laughed at. She is just a seven years old girl with many questions in her head but she
cannot speak them up to find the answer. She want to be heard to encourage her to express her
thought too often.
Discussion
7. 2. The external conflict
The external conflict happen between herself and the expectation that come from her grandmother and
how she find herself a place in the society. Adjoa was born with long and thin legs, which uncommon and bad
for women in that society. Her grandmother always complains about it everyday to Adjoa's mother, they
often have arguing over it. Her grandmother, Nana, expected Adjoa's mother to have a son but the reality
Adjoa's mother is giving birth a daughter, who will end up to stay at home and take care of the children. Nana
always states that a woman should have a big legs with good calves to support solid hips. And a woman
should have a solid hips to be able to have children. From here, it can be concluded that Nana is worrying
about Adjoa future tat she will not able to give birth and have children. Adjoa should struggle to prove that
she can do something good with her legs. She has won every race she ran for her school and Nana says that
she does not care of such things, but actually Nana is very proud of Adjoa, it can showed from how she treats
Adjoa after the race, she is ironing Adjoa's uniform.
8. The conflicts that happen in the story are mostly from the expectation of
society. The society and stereotype have a big role to build up the conflict in a
person. The women in Ghana is till struggling to find their place in society.
Conclusion
