The Philosophy of Being and the Practical Implication of Literature: Greg Mbajiorgu’s the Prime Minister’s Son and Nuruddin Farah’s Secrets

Abstract

The Philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, is regarded as the great pessimist of philosophy. It is in his philosophy that one can locate Greg Mbajiorgu’s and Nuruddin Farah’s The Prime Minister’s Son and Secrets respectively. Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy was a reaction to both Kantian and Hegelian Philosophies. The objective of this essay was to see where Greg Mbajiorgu’s The Prime Minister’s Son and Nuruddin Farah’s Secrets complied with Schopenhauer’s idea of the absurd, which the world is. The questions the essay tried to answer are: Why is there so much suffering in the world? Why did the characters such as Ezinma and her son have to endure so much suffering in The Prime Minister’s Son? Why did Damac have to be gang-raped in Secrets? Why do we hold secrets? Why are there taboos, which humans will so willingly not adhere to in their privacy? The paper sought answers to these questions in the two texts under study using qualitative method. Quantitative data in the form of interview published in a book was also used to support both the deductive and inductive analysis of texts. The importance of this research paper cannot be overemphasized when one considers the suffering that most humankind experience in the process of living. It is expected to provide enlightenment to Governments of the world, especially in developing countries on the need to reducing the suffering that many in these countries face.

Keywords: Arthur Schopenhauer, Hegelian and Kantian Philosophies, Absurd, the World