Global Journal of Human Social Science, H: Interdisciplinary, Volume 22 Issue 7

It is clear from the above that Ovie too wants to be like other girls and become socially relevant in the dating game. She wants to belong to the class of girls rolling with big names in town. So, to actualize that dream of becoming another, she offers herself to any man ready to pay the bills, so she can step up. She mimics the character of other big girls in cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt who run into senators, ministers, and other government functionaries. In one of her outings with Bodiere she tells Bodiere that they should leave the restaurant early because of the remote nature of the place. According to her, it is not the kind of place big boys show up to pay bills because the environment is not clean. This implies, Ovie wants to belong to the class of big girls and have big boys, foot her bills. The writer puts it: “Pay the bills land let’s get out of here before flies eat up your flesh jare . There is no need to waste time here. This is not the kind of restaurant where big boys show to pick your bills with pleasure. The ones that visit here job you instead” ( FOB 13 ). She thinks flaunting her butts before men will attract them to pay the bills for her, hence her regret. Like the character of Naomi in Tanizaki. Jun’ichiro. Naomi mimics the English language and finally decides to study English just so she can marry Jojo. Ovie has to mimic the life of immorality and flaunt her butts around the big boys and sugar Daddys so she can measure up with the current trend of her society. No wonder, she deceives Kunle, another of boyfriends that she is pregnant, to see how he will react and take her seriously. However, when she discovers he does not accept the news of her pregnancy, she forced him to give her enough money for an abortion. Ovie wants a serious man who can foot her bills. She wanted to test if Kunle can finally be at her beck and call if she informs him about her pregnancy. On the contrary, he rejected the news. According to her, Kunle is insensitive her to needs, her wants and luxuries: “He was so stingy, proud, self-centered, unfaithful and arrogant…she later discovered to her chagrin that he did not want to be bothered with her toiletries, her clothes or welfare” ( FOB , 32). Her desire to be like others did not end with Kunle and others but took her to the North and the man helps her with a job as a warder. Even as a prison warder, she still desires to be like her big bosses in her office, which is the reason she commits adultery with her boss and was caught by Amatu her husband. Ovie’s pant for promotion, so he could be like others in society, pushes her to commit adultery. Hear this: And while he thought it abominable for her to cheat on him even once, her sharp resorts when she lost control of herself did not only hint at her indifference to possible past infidelity; the act seemed not sacrilegious enough for her to recant it or foreclose recurrent. He found it difficult to comprehend the idea of his wife contemplating romance with another man. What troubled him was that…appear accidental; it was premeditated… she subtly justified her action, asking how else could she have got all the favours and promotions in an establishment such as the Nigerian Prisons, if she did not flirt with the authorities in order to give her family the comfort they deserve? And could she solely provide for the family if she didn’t overlook moral and ethical standards ( FOB , 324). It is vivid from the above that Ovie wants to like her others (her bosses) and gain the respect they have and earn the kind of money they earn. According to her, she is ready to do anything that will place her in the skim of things with others in her society. She is not bothered about marital ethics and moral standards because it will not put food on her table. This implies, that what motivates her actions, is to be like them someday. This is the view of Amardeep Singh when he said “mimicry in colonial and postcolonial literature is most commonly seen when members of a colonized society (say, Indians or Africans) imitate the language, dress, politics, or cultural attitude of their colonizers (say, the British or the French) … (“Mimicry and Hybridity in Plain English” para. 3). In order words, mimicry is seen as an opportunistic pattern of behavior where one copies the person in power because one hopes to have access to that same power oneself someday. This is the driving force behind Ovie’s actions throughout the novel. VI. C onclusion The paper has so far examined mimicry in the characters of Bodiere and Ovie, the two major female characters in the selected text. The essay has also demonstrated with textual shreds of evidence the how two characters mimic the behavior of others in an attempt to be like them. It is also clear from the text that both characters are representative of other female characters. This is because the life of promiscuity that runs in their veins could is not different from the other women in the text. They all were at one point of the other mimic women. From Angelina to Mama, Imomotimi, Iniye, Alaere, and the rest. They all demonstrated activities of double-standard. And the reason for such was to mimic a better life out; to become like another person. No wonder, they all demonstrated the big eye syndrome , running after luxury under poor foundations. The paper submits that what Elemeforo has achieved in this novel is to question the ill motivations behind the mimicry of the neocolonialists' behaviours, values, and lifestyle by the oppressed or colonized (women). W orks C ited 1. Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post- Colonial Literatures . Routledge, 2003. 2. Becker, Eva. "Inversion and Subversion, Alterity and Ambivalence: “Mimicry” and “Hybridity” in Sherman Alexie’s Ten Little Indians ." Unpublished Paper. Commonwealth Honors College, University of Massachusetts , 2009. Volume XXII Issue VII Version I 10 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals H Mimicry in Ted Elemeforo’s Fountain of Betrayal