Al-Ansari’s Bassma and Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden: The Journey from Reality to Fantasy (Published)
This study aims at drawing a distinction between the world of fantasy and reality in Al-Ansari’s novel Bassma and Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden. It investigates how the protagonists in both novels travel from the world of reality which is full of hopelessness, despair, and loss to the world of fantasy full of hope, happiness, and maturity. In other words, the study explores how the world of reality makes both protagonists create an imaginary or mythical world to compensate for what they lost in the world of reality and to entertain the freedom of childhood period. The study methodology is based on the comparative close reading analysis, in which some quotes are selected from both novels to illustrate the protagonists’ journey from reality to fantasy. The study concludes that in the children and young adult literature, most protagonists travel from the world of reality to fantasy in order to become self-actualized, mature, experienced, and to restore the joyful moments of childhood
Keywords: Loneliness, Loss, Reality, childhood, fantasy, garden, past memories, self-actualized
Relationships Redefined: An Analysis of Anita Brookner’s The Bay of Angels (Published)
The contemporary novelist, Anita Brookner’s novels bring to light how the feminine self is also a patchwork of social injunctions as well as images inscribed in the literary canon. Her novels fictionalize the self in the process of rethinking and seeking its worth through a more meaningful identity than just the self-denying or sexually desirable conceptions of womanhood, reflected through cultural representations. Brookner’s novel, The Bay of Angels (2001) is an exploration of self-restraint, dignity and obligation within a tale of love and loneliness. Being orphaned and dejected by her flirtatious lover, Adam, she hopes to have a lifelong commitment characterized by certainty. Finally, Zoë happily accepts the present arrangement and considers her relationship with Dr. Balbi a precious one as it has involved no change of character, no effort to meet each other’s requirements. Zoë’s idea of love shows her broad vision as she does not want the man she loves for herself alone but is generous enough to let him share his affections with his helpless sister. This attitude of not wanting to be loved for oneself alone, in the broader sense, serves as the foundation for a healthy and harmonious society.
Keywords: Contemporary, Feminine sensibility, Harmony, Loneliness, Love, womanhood
The Psychosocial Effects Of People Living With HIV/AIDS At The Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital Okolobiri, Bayela State Nigeria (Published)
The psychosocial effects of the people living with HIV/AIDS have been acknowledged in sociological literature with few or little empirical study to justify its consequences on the affected people in contrast to its biomedical effects. This paper acknowledges that the biomedical consequences of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is still essential, but focuses more on the psychosocial effects of PLWHA that aggravate their health conditions. Engel’s biopsychosocial model was utilized as analytical framework and a descriptive research design for the study. One hundred and fifty (N=150) respondents participated in the study in a chain-referral technique at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okoloibiri Bayelsa State using a structured questionnaire as instrument of data collection. Frequency and percentage distribution tables were used to present and analyzed the quantitative data collected for the study using SPSS version 17.0. Findings showed that there were psychosocial effects that aggravate the conditions of PLWHA ranging from depression and perhaps self-destruction arisen from stigmatization, discrimination, denial, loss of relationships and social disarticulation among others. The paper concluded that though the biological determinants of the transmission of the disease need to be emphasized and discouraged among people of the society through campaign and sensitization across board, but more emphasis and attention should be laid on efforts to embrace those already affected with HIV/AIDS by eradicating all forms of stigmatization, discrimination, deprivation through love and supports for them rather than disarticulating them from the members of the society.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Loneliness, Stigmatization, loss of relationships, social disarticulation and supports
THE IMAGE OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN IN FENCES (1985) (Published)
August Wilson’s major concern is to sympathetically put on stage the black experience and thus to arouse the community’s awareness for such experience. His black characters are always in constant quest for self-realization and for an authentic identity. Consequently, focuses on encouraging the blacks to rediscover their identities and to maintain self-authentication. He believes that the only way for the African Americans to transcend the limited existence in white racist America is by recovering their Africanness; by recognizing and accepting their African roots. He is keen on reminding the African Americans of their cultural heritage and their identity that has been maintained for ages despite their painful sense of alienation and their separation from their African culture. To Wilson, the African culture and heritage should not be an element of inferiority; rather it must be an evidence of pride because Afro-Americans have their own cultural distinctions: they have their own customs, music, food, clothing, language, rituals of marriage and funerals which are different from the whites’. Thus, he gives a complete record of the black world and culture, and urges, moreover, blacks to be proud of their distinct cultural heritage.
Keywords: Cultural Heritage, Loneliness, Racism, rediscovering self-identity
LONELINESS AMONG SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN GHANA (Published)
The experience of loneliness varies across cultures. This study explored loneliness among students in two metropolitan senior high schools in Ghana. A sample of 244 students (40.5% males, 59.5% females; mean age =18.4 years) completed Revised University of California Los Angeles (R-UCLA) Loneliness Scale developed by Russell (1982). A series of one-way analysis of variance tests (ANOVA) were used to determine the existence of any significant differences among variables. The results of the findings indicate that the mean R-UCLA scores among the senior high school students fell in the lower range (N=244; M=45.81; SD=10.001). There were significant differences in gender F (1, 240) = 7.858, p = .005. ; In age, F (1, 240) = 4.958, p = .0027, and religious affiliation F (1, 240) = 9.030, p = .003. The results of this study indicate that varying degrees of loneliness is felt in different cultures because the way people live and approach problem solving in their social context are different. This paper explains why this new knowledge can be used to inform parents, school administrators and counselors appreciate the effect of other demographic variables on loneliness in the life of Ghanaian adolescents.
Keywords: Adolescents, Ghana, Loneliness, Senior High Students
