On The Threshold of Moral Crisis: Poetics of Good and Bad Characters in "the Famished Road"

Abstract

Ben Okri in The Famished Road creates a depiction of his grotesque characters within the ambience of magical realism as to delineate them into good and evil camps. This paper argues that Okri’s characters in The Famished Road are sublime. Consequently, Okri created a polarization of the characters. The paper further establishes that some of the characters are human beings like Azaro’s parents, while others like the photographer, Madam Koto, and the beggars are situated within the esoteric proclivity.
Equally in the novel, there are gods and spirits who occupy the supernatural world, and who constantly maintain links with human beings in various guises.