The Virtuous Woman Character Analysis

In her second novel The Virtuous Woman, Alkali engages us in the journey motive as we witness the growth of the major character Nana Ai through the journeys she under takes in search of the Golden Fleece. Nana Ai is the first recipient of a state scholarship from the little village of Zuma. The scholarship was as a result of her brilliant performance in the common entrance examination. In hjer fourth year, she is joined by two other young girls from the village of Zuma. Nana Ai’s award of state scholarship is an encouragement to other young girls from Zuma who believe that if they work hard enough, they too can win a state scholarship and enjoy the opportunity of traveling to faraway lands in search of western education. This is the kind of encouragement young people need to be able to perform well in their academic endeavour. It should be noted that Zaynab Alkali has been in the forefront of encouraging girl child education. She sees western education as a means of breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. She is of the opinion that the woman should not be totally dependent on her husband. She encourages women to strive hard through western education to be supportive of their husbands in winning bread for the family. This explains why the girl child must be supported at all cost to be educated. By the end of the novel The Virtuous Woman, the reader can safely assume that a character like nana Ai has gone through the experiences of life in terms of bathos, pathos humorous and