THE NOVELIST AS SOCIAL CRUSADER AND NATION BUILDER: PERSPECTIVES FROM NNAMDI ANUMIHE’S CHARTERED MESSENGER

Abstract

Novelists and other literary artists in Nigeria, like other nations of the world have continued to explore in their creative works, the precarious position of man in his environment and the daunting problems which constantly beset them in the society. Man’s struggle to tackle these problems and so create a niche for himself is often confronted with retrogressive forces which always thwart his efforts at reconstruction and made them futile, a situation which a social crusader in the text, Fred has to contend with. The major challenge which invariably confronts both the writer and consumer of literature thus revolves around the use of literary art to bring positive changes in both the individual and society. The social functions of literature have not only helped to improve and shape the society, but also been found indispensable for building a virile healthy modern society. As a feature of the urban environment, modern literature acts as check and balance on the excess of the society such as social evils, injustices, human brutalities, dissatisfaction, bribery and corruption, social discrimination, armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry and other forms of racketeering. The focus of this discourse, therefore, is to critically examine how effectively the author has employed his creative ability to tackle these harrowing inhuman condition that variously militate against efforts geared at social reform, on the one hand, and how divine intervention in the affairs of man results in sudden twist, on the other hand, which eventually usher in the inevitable social change and restoration in Nnamdi Anumihe’s Chartered Messenger.