Social Consciousness: An Analysis of Ifeoma Okoye’sThe Fourth World

Abstract

Writers have a social responsibility of depicting varied experiences of life within a given cultural milieu. Their documentations have thus awakened the consciousness of people while responding to pressing issues of the society with clarity, plausibility and accuracy. African writers have tried reacting to various postcolonial issues in Africa by depicting the ugly and humiliating experiences of individuals in African societies. Hence, the image of poverty, squalor, deprivation and deplorable conditions depicted in the selected novel, The Fourth World raised a need for this research. This paper therefore adopts different perspectives as critical tools in order to understand the relationship between the characters’ living conditions and their bizarre experiences. In this work, Okoye’s novel is therefore x-rayed through the critical lens of Feminism, Marxism, Postcolonial theory, Ecocriticism and Ecofeminism. The selected novel however explores various ways individuals especially the female gender is adversely affected by social, political, cultural and economic factors. The analysis of the novel reveals certain levels of corruption, marginalization, oppression, poverty, hopelessness and gender issues that aggravate the sufferings of individuals in society, thereby limiting their opportunities of attaining self realization and freedom. However, Ifeoma Okoye’s The Fourth World is employed in this paper to critically explore the above stated views.