Naika CharlesAfrican Novel 373Professor Isidore OkpewhoMay 17, 2014In this article, I will discuss the gender point of the main characters in these three novels: Woman at Point Zero by Nawalel Saadawi, Changes : A love story of Ama Ata Aidoo and Maru by Bessie Head. I will show the courage of these women, who are the main characters of each novel; how they struggle to not be dominated by the opposite sex and dominated by the men in their lives. In these novels you can see how the men in women's lives use love to control women and how in all three novels power and ownership is the main theme. How men influence their power over these women. I will reveal the different experiences that each woman had to go through and the steps each of them took to achieve the independence they aspire to. These women had to fight for what they believe in and fight for their freedom against 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 becoming independent. In Woman At Point Zero, Firdau's way of being independent was prostitution, in Changes: A love Story for Esi, it was her higher value in her career, and in Maru Margaret Cadmore junior, she painted and taught. In Woman At Point Zero, Firdaus was the prostitute. the main character, was born into an extremely poor rural family. Her father often abused and hit her and her mother. Her fondest childhood memories are the memory of her mother's eyes looking up at her, supporting her as she struggled to learn to walk. For Firdaus, this feeling of belonging to his mother and being watched by her is very comforting. It was the only... middle of paper ...... seen, since her adoptive mother had raised her primarily as an experiment rather than the loved one 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 a young age by the environment she lived in as well as by her school. Yes, her adoptive mothers read her at night, rock her to sleep and defend her from all prejudices. But she was still treated half as a servant and half as an experiment. Margaret junior learned from a young age that it will be difficult to survive these prejudices between a bushman and a Masarwa. The only way she felt happy and not alone was through her books, while growing up she dedicated her life to excelling in school. Then, after her adoptive mother died, she had no one in her life; when she moved to the African village of Dilipe