Authors
Adesiyan, R. U., Adegbenro, E. J.
Abstract
Single motherhood is becoming ubiquitous today, unlike in the past, when it was almost
a sacrilege. This portends serious implications for society. This paper examines the tragic
conditions that a single mother and her child find themselves in while trying to navigate
the difficulties imposed on them by society. Three novels on the theme of single
motherhood were purposively selected from Nigeria; Abubakar's Without Mercy,
Asogwa's The Mirror of My Life, and Unigwe's Night Dancers. The study adopted the
content analytical method in interrogating the selected novels. A purposive sampling
technique was used to select three novels a total of twelve films comprising six
Nollywood and six Hollywood films. The novels were subjected to content and
qualitative analysis to explore the issues of single motherhood. The study adopted
Attachment Theory as the framework for analysis. Findings revealed that children raised
by both parents exhibit a wholesome attitude towards life and suffer little or no rejection
from people. Whereas, a child brought up by a single parent faces social rejection, and
psychological depression, and becomes behaviorally dysfunctional. Every inherent
character defect or otherwise displayed by a child raised by a single mother is a factor of
societal attitude towards the peculiar challenge of the parent. Moreover, the tragic
conditions experienced by single mothers/their children are compounded by
stigmatisation, psychological pressure, victimisation, rejection, taunting, and mockery.
The paper recommends that the society should reappraise its value system by accepting
single motherhood as a socio-reality to save the society from violence and suicide.
Keywords
Attachment theory, contemporary Nigerian novels, parenthood, single
motherhood, sensitive parenting.
Introduction
The subject of single motherhood has always been a part of man and has existed as far as man is concerned. In time past, single motherhood was not as pronounced or common as it is today. It was more of a taboo, a thing unheard of. Hence women did everything possible to stay married not only because they understood the negative implications of single parenting but because of fear of stigmatisation of not just the individual involved, but the family as a whole. A family would not want to be separated from her kinsman and the society at large because a woman inadvertently brings a child to the world outside wedlock.
Content
The subject of single motherhood has always been a part of man and has existed as far as man is concerned. In time past, single motherhood was not as pronounced or common as it is today. It was more of a taboo, a thing unheard of. Hence women did everything possible to stay married not only because they understood the negative implications of single parenting but because of fear of stigmatisation of not just the individual involved, but the family as a whole. A family would not want to be separated from her kinsman and the society at large because a woman inadvertently brings a child to the world outside wedlock.
Conclusion
The family as the first agent of socialisation is the first to criticise the characters in the selected novels. Society is also responsible for the tragic conditions and the poverty a single mother partly experienced in the texts because of social construct. Hence, every woman needs to be economically empowered to set herself free from societal norms. The survival instinct in a single mother as well as children in lone families is premised on the economic capacity or viability of the single mother. Through the deployment of characters, the use of narrative techniques, and language, the novelists succeeded in communicating these tragic conditions by sympathising with, exonerating and blaming their characters. A single parent is caused by so many factors and the effect is more on the children than mothers. Society has a major role to play in reshaping the lives of single parents. Some characters weaved through or survived the hopeless situations they found themselves in while others were submerged by them. Single motherhood is not hereditary, as a matter fact, but society has largely contributed to the issues befalls women who today are regarded as single mothers or parent.
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