The Reign of Evil in Ben Okri’s <i>The Famished Road</i>

Abstract

This paper discusses reign of evil in Ben Okri’s The Famished Road. The novel reveals various levels and degrees of evil perpetrated by human beings and other forces against the weak and downtrodden in the society. In this work, moral delinquencies are presented and episodes and instances of moral decadence highlighted. An analysis of the experiences of the characters of the story is also uncovered. Findings show a society plagued by vices where the poor and the weak are at the mercy of the powerful represented by Madame Koto, politicians and other supernatural forces. It is a society struggling under the grip of one evil or the other. In criticizing moral laxity in the society as represented in Okri’s The Famished Road, we recommend a just, egalitarian and morally upright society, devoid of the display of excessive power which characterises the society under reference.