MORAL DECADENCE IN SELECTED STORIES IN KEN SARO WIWA’S A FOREST OF FLOWERS AND TANURE OJAIDE’S GOD’S NAKED CHILDREN

ABSTRACT

It is important to state that the society has always been embedded with happenings that redefine the societal views. However, these turn of events and man’s response to them are captured in literary adventure. Hence, literature becomes a mirror of the society. These experiences can either be pre-historical, historical or contemporary. However, the ability of a writer at any given time and space to capture experiences as documentation of both social fact and intellectual essence is striking. Romanus N. Egudu in his The Study of Poetry says that "Literature is a means of expression." Hence, as a means of expression, it has the capacity to capture, retain and transmit across ages the going-ons of a particular time. Undeniably, the place of literature in every society is insurmountable and non-substitutional as a result of its fittingness. It serves a mirror held towards reality and the hammar with which it is shaped. It is not only the cause of social effect but also the effect of social course (Wibur Scott). It feeds on the society and gives back the end result of the ripple effect of the food to the society. This Ken Saro wiwa has done in his short story collection entitled A forest of Flowers he employs the use of satire to point out the corruptions in government owned institutions, the police force and other law enforcement agencies. The health sector was not left out as Wiwa attempts to paint the ugly design that this decadence gives to the society. An average citizen has given up on the government that they elected into power and when the citizens are given power they perform worse than the government as in the case of the Sanitary Inspector.