Ayi Kwei Armah’s Narrative Grammar- A Study of His First Three Novels

ABSTRACT 

The study has proposed a narrative grammar for reading Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Fragments, and Why Are We So Blest? A narrative grammar is a distinct set of models and narrative categories to analyze a story. Tzvetan Todorov, Claud Levi- Strauss and Vladimir Propp are major proponents of this theory. Each uses a personal GRAMMAR, that is, a distinct set of models and narrative categories to analyze the “story”. This concept involves constants and variables of the story where the variables are the characters and the constants are the functions or actions of the characters. In his Morphology of the Folktale (1928). Prop examined many Russian folktales and recognized common themes within them. He broke down the stories into units. These units according to Propp may be found in the structure of many folktales. In a similar vein, this study has propounded a grammar with the pattern that emerged from Ayi Kwei Armah’s first three novels by looking at three crucial elements: plot, character and theme. The study discovered that elements such as a hapless protagonist, corrupt environment and the absence of a resolutionat the end of each story, just to mention a few, are constant features of the plots of the novels under study in spite of the slight variations identified in each plot. In terms of character, outstanding constants such as forces working for and against the protagonists were identified. In all the novels, there are more powerful characters working against the progress of the protagonists than those for them. The fate of the protagonists also becomes increasingly worse as the story progresses from The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born till the protagonist dies in Why Are We So Blest? An outstanding variable identified in characterization is with Modin in Why Are We So Blest? Similar themes such as corruption, greed, colonial mentality manifesting in the cargo cult mentality, racism and slavery are constants in the novels under study. With slight variations in their manifestations. For example,the theme of corruption in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and Why Are We So Blest? Armah lashes out at politicians who use their positions for their selfish interest, but focuses on the lazy attitude of the citizens such as Asante – Smith and Brempong, towards their work in Fragments. The thesis concludes with the grammar that in Armah’s novels under study, a hapless protagonist who lives in a corrupt environment becomes an anti-hero and is unable to overcome the odds because there are forces working for and against him. This makes the end always negative. The study concludes with recommendations for further studies.