The Role of Western Education in Shaping Female Agency in Bumi Manusia

Abstract

Western education occupies an important place in Bumi Manusia, yet its role in shaping female agency has received limited scholarly attention. While previous studies have examined colonialism, gender inequality, and Nyai Ontosoroh’s resistance, few have specifically explored how education serves as the driving force behind her intellectual transformation and resistance to social marginalization. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how Western education influences Nyai Ontosoroh’s intellectual transformation and how this transformation enables her to challenge colonial and patriarchal oppression. Employing a qualitative descriptive design, the study analyzes textual evidence from the novel through theory-driven thematic analysis informed by Giddens’ Structuration Theory and the Postcolonial Feminist perspectives of Spivak and Mohanty. The findings reveal that literacy, knowledge acquisition, and critical awareness transform Nyai Ontosoroh from practical consciousness to discursive consciousness, strengthening her agency to make strategic decisions, exercise leadership, and resist systems of domination. The study concludes that Western education functions not merely as a means of acquiring knowledge but as a catalyst for intellectual empowerment, enabling resistance against social marginalization. These findings contribute to postcolonial literary studies by demonstrating the transformative relationship between education, female agency, and resistance in colonial contexts.