Rethinking Motifs in Selected Children’s Literary Texts

Abstract

This study evaluates various motifs in selected children’s literary texts against the backdrop of exposing negative and anti-social conducts among children and members of the society. It also foregrounds the artistic merit in the use of various literary tropes by authors of children’s literature in enhancing their appeal to the audience. The primary texts for this study are James Ene Henshaw’s This is our Chance and Chinua Achebe’s Chike and the River. They are selected because they best exemplify the critical use of motifs in achieving the required message that this study is geared towards. The sociological approach to literature which concentrates on the extrinsic elements that examine the relationship between literature and society is applied to determine the artistic elements and motifs in the selected texts. The paper shows that the themes treated in children’s literatures are often those that children are concerned with at various stages of their life – such as heroism, adventure, risk, mischief, fantasy, love, overcoming restiveness, jealousy and so on. The paper, therefore, concludes that since heroism and adventure constitute the major fulcrum of Nigerian children’s literature, authors of children’s literature should choose a principal character who is going to be the hero or heroine in their works. Thus, the development of the story is the development of the hero/heroine until the end of the story where he/she overcomes the conflict.