ALIENATION AND URBAN IDENTITY IN AYI KWEI ARMAH’S THE BEAUTYFUL ONES ARE NOT YET BORN
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This paper explores the complex interplay between alienation and urban identity in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah, situating the text within the socio-political realities of postcolonial Ghana. The novel presents the city as a paradoxical space—simultaneously a site of opportunity, modernization, and aspiration, and a landscape marked by moral decay, corruption, and social fragmentation. Through this duality, the urban environment becomes central to understanding how identities are constructed, negotiated, and often destabilized.
The study argues that alienation in the novel is not merely an individual psychological condition but a structural and spatial phenomenon shaped by urban modernity. The unnamed protagonist’s experiences reflect a broader crisis of identity within a society grappling with the aftermath of colonialism and the failures of post-independence governance. The city, depicted through vivid imagery of filth, decay, and stagnation, mirrors the ethical disintegration of public life and intensifies the protagonist’s sense of disconnection from both society and self. This estrangement is further reinforced by systems of class inequality, bureaucratic inertia, and pervasive corruption, which restrict access to social mobility and meaningful participation in civic life.
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Raghu, K. (2026). Alienation and Urban Identity in Ayi Kwei Armah’s the Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born. International Journal of Science, Strategic Management and Technology, 02(03). https://doi.org/10.55041/ijsmt.v2i3.284
Raghu, Kukka. "Alienation and Urban Identity in Ayi Kwei Armah’s the Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born." International Journal of Science, Strategic Management and Technology, vol. 02, no. 03, 2026, pp. . doi:https://doi.org/10.55041/ijsmt.v2i3.284.
Raghu, Kukka. "Alienation and Urban Identity in Ayi Kwei Armah’s the Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born." International Journal of Science, Strategic Management and Technology 02, no. 03 (2026). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.55041/ijsmt.v2i3.284.
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