Social Stratification Poverty And Social Injustices In Ngugi’s Petals Of Blood And Iyayi’s Violence

Social Stratification Poverty And Social Injustices In Ngugi’s Petals Of Blood And Iyayi’s Violence
Social Stratification Poverty And Social Injustices In Ngugi’s Petals Of Blood And Iyayi’s Violence

ABSTRACT: This research study is set to expose the Social Stratification Poverty and Social Injustices in Ngugi’s Petals of Blood and Iyayi’s Violence. The two novels expose the ugly treatment the upper class to the poor with social injustices and deprivations and economic rights by the rich. In Petals of Blood, the Kenyan writer portrays the problems experienced by the poor people of Kenyan during and after Independence and how they are oppressed and humiliated.  Apart from subjugation, political disillusionment, humiliation and oppression, their rights are restricted. While in Violence, Iyayi pictures a society with two classes of people the rich and poor, the oppressive forces fighting against the poor to submerge them in perpetual state of poverty, discrimination, social injustices and disillusionment.

According to the study the poor masses are dominated and neglected without care as seen in the lives of the characters under investigation. The study therefore recommends that, literature should be a compulsory subject for all Nigerian students because it mirrors the events, incidents and episode of every society and it would also serves as an avenue for eradicating immoral and political crisis in every society of Africa.

 

Social Stratification Poverty And Social Injustices In Ngugi’s Petals Of Blood And Iyayi’s Violence

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

This study aims to portray the social to stratification, poverty and injustices in Ngugi WaThiongo’s Petals of Blood and Festus Iyayi’s Violence. Though, Ngugi and Iyayi are among the Africa’s profile writers so no discussion on the historical relevance of Africa’s fiction can be completed without mentioning their names and their works of art. For instance, Festus Iyayi has been observed as one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Nigerian literary scene. His writings are distinctly characterised for directness of social injustices, exploitation and societal and national interests.

As a socialist, Iyayi explores the nature of the Nigerian society in various ramifications from political to the economic exploitation of the poor and marginalised the lower social class members of the society. For instance, Iyayi portrays to the Nigerian society how the poor are exploited inthe socio-political structure and how these poor masses pass through various social injustices and domination by the upper class citizens…who are the rich. To bring out the poverty, social injustice, inequality, deprivation, exploitation, degradation and object conditions of the working class Iyayi strikingly defines the difference and significance  of the working class through characters, such as, Idemudia, Osaro, Patrick Mama and Papa Jimoh and other as well as the affluence represented by Obofun, Queen and others. For example, due to poverty Adisa, the wife of Idemudia, unintentionally submits herself to sexual humiliation in order to get money to settle her husband’s hospital bill. In the same vein, “Idemudia and comrades even have to sell some pints of blood in order to survive” (253).

The analysis portrays a clear picture of how the masses suffer in our Nigerian in the hands of the rich. On the other hand, Ngugi is one of the famous Kenyan writers whose writings dramatise how the people of Kenya are exploited. In Petals of Blood, Ngugi portrays a comprehensive analysis and the evils that are perpetrated during the independence Kenya …and how the native people Kenya were exploited and humiliated in the hands of the colonial masters in Petals of Blood because of colonialism. Consequently these form the bedrock to this research work with a view of examining the social stratification, poverty and social injustices experienced by the poor masses in the post-colonial Kenya and Nigeria in Ngugi’s Petals of Blood and Iyayi’s Violence.

Social Stratification Poverty And Social Injustices In Ngugi’s Petals Of Blood And Iyayi’s Violence

1.2     Statement of the Problem

The research study seeks to foreground the social stratification, exploitation, social injustice and poverty in the two novels under study.

Originally posted on October 27, 2021 @ 1:29 pm

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