Social Issues in Nnamdi Anumihe’s Chartered Messenger

Abstract

Social issues in literary creativity revolve around the socio-political, economic, cultural and religious temperament in the society. Indeed, the treatment of burning issues of the day and its effective reflection and mirroring in various degrees and dimensions in literary creativity is what is commonly referred to as social engagement in literature. Thus, a literary writer who chooses to use his creative ability to serve a given social cause or interest in his artistic environment shows a measure of commitment by being honest and faithful in capturing and reflecting the traumatic experiences, struggles and harrowing inhuman conditions in his society. In fact, his literary creativity should be critical of such occurrences in his society. In other words, his creative input should condemn in varying degrees of accuracy, bribery and corruption, social evils and injustices, social discrimination, armed robbery and all forms of racketeering, etc. These are in fact, among the thematic preoccupations of Chartered Messenger. The focus of this paper, therefore is to critically examine how effectively the literary artist under study has employed his creative ability in his work to tackle these harrowing inhuman conditions and problems in the society with a view to calling for social change and reform in the lives of the people.