Naika CharlesAfrican Novel 373Professor Isidore OkpewhoMay 17, 2014In this article I will discuss the gender point of the main characters of these three novels: Woman At Point Zero by Nawalel Saadawi, Edits: A love story of Ama Ata Aidoo and Maru by Bessie Head. I will show how courageous these women are, who are the protagonists of each novel; how they struggle with being overwhelmed by the opposite sex and dominated by the men in their lives. In these novels you can see how men in women's lives use love to control women and how in all three novels power and ownership are the main theme. How men influence their power over these women. I will reveal the different experiences each woman has faced and the steps each has taken to gain the independence she desires. These women had to fight for what they believe in and for their freedom from a country that believes that women should be dominated by men and that a woman has no rights. Each woman had a different perspective on how to be free and independent and each took a different path to achieving their independence. From Woman At Point Zero, Firdaus's way of being independent was prostitution, in Changes: A love Story for Esi it was her highest value in her career, and in Maru Margaret Cadmore junior she painted and taught. In Woman At Point Zero, Firdaus is the protagonist, he was born into an extremely poor family in the countryside. Her father often abused and beat her and her mother. Her fondest memories as a child are of her mother's eyes looking up at her, holding her as she struggled to learn to walk. For Firdaus, this sense of belonging to his mother and being watched over by her is very comforting. She was the only...... middle of paper......ved, since her adoptive mother raised her more as an experience than the love in her heart for the newborn. As she grew up, she was teased and bullied because she was different from her racist roommate. She never felt loved or cared for, she felt rejected from an early age by the environment she lived in and by school. Yes, her adoptive mothers read her at night, rock her to sleep and defend her from all prejudice. But she was still treated half like a servant and half an experiment. Margaret junior learns from an early age that it will be difficult to survive this prejudice between a bushman and a Masarwa. The only way she felt happy and not alone was through her books, and as she grew up she dedicated her life to excelling in school. Then, after her adoptive mother died, she had no one in her life; when he moved to the African village of Dilipe