The Novel As A Mirror Of The Society

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ABSTRACT All genres of literature deal with human experience in one form or another, but the relationship between the individual and society is the specialty of the novel in that the novel captures the experience(s) of individuals which collectively form the events in the society. This is the basis upon which this paper is written. It examines two novels; Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah and Petals of Blood by Ngugi Wa Thiongo as mirrors of the society. Both novels capture relevant events in the society at the times in which they were written. INTRODUCTION In Africa, the novel became prominent during the struggle for freedom and independence. Writers such as Camara Laye, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, and many others, had acquired an education in colonial institutions and read the works of European novelists. To these African intellectuals the novel must have appeared a powerful tool of social criticism. And it was exactly this tool that they adopted and exploited in their criticism of colonial and post-colonial societies. To further butress this point, Achebe suggests that, writers must support “society regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self abasement” (Achebe, 44) Bearing in mind the relation between the African novel and the society (i.e how the novel serves as a mirror of the society), we can see the African novel in three categories. The first category consists of the novel that deals with the African society in its communal form. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine, Ngugi’s The River Between and Armah’s The Healers, among others belong to this group. The second group encompasses novels dealing with Africa just before or after independence. We refer to the period of the 1960s when most African countries obtained independence. Soyinka’s
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