Dysfunctional parenting as a threat to the sustenance of human dignity in the 21st century: a study of Darko’s <i>Faceless</i>

Abstract

Many modern families are dysfunctional with either parent leaving the home and children uncared for. It is expected that the job of parenting is for both parents who ought to live together to perform this duty. On the contrary, however, many parents hardly can live together in harmony to nurture their children. In a majority of cases, when this type of situation arises, children grow wild and take to the streets to fend for themselves. This is why one of the problems of the 21st century is the danger posed by the ever-increasing number of street children in the major cities and urban centres. It is against this backdrop that this paper studied Amma Darko’s Faceless to determine the extent to which dysfunctional parenting led to the menace of street children, and what could be done to forestall the phenomenon. This work was hinged on Cultural theory. It was discovered at the end of the research that several factors, chief among which is parental neglect, were responsible for street children menace in the novel. Suggestions were, therefore, made for curbing this social danger that tramples upon human dignity in the 21st century.