The Portrayal of Intergenerational Trauma in Motherhood in Okwiri Oduor’s Things They Lost

Abstract

It is widely perceived that motherhood is a coveted status that many women would wish to go through in fullness of time. The desire to have a family especially children becomes a priority that such women would long for. The desire to be called a mother and the fulfillment to see her children grow to maturity brings immeasurable joy to a mother. However, in some cases this does not happen. On this flipside, motherhood can become a source of trauma that a mother would prefer to run away from. African traditional societies were closely knit that motherhood was collective. The community raised a child. Children treated women of their mother’s age like their mothers while the women did the same to children. Challenges that arose in motherhood were handled by the community and thus they were not a huge concern to a particular mother as such. However, communal motherhood is slowly drifting away. Culture is dynamic; and as a result today we are witnessing motherhood that is beset with trauma. This trauma as well becoming intergenerational in that it goes on to affect subsequent generations as if it is hereditary. Whereas African traditional motherhood was complemented by fatherhood, what we see in the novel, Things They Lost, is motherhood wrapped in single parenthood. This trauma in the novel guided my choice of research topic: Portrayal of Intergenerational Traumain Motherhood in Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor. The research examines four generations of women from the first white settler Mabel Brown, to her daughter Lola Freedom, to her granddaughters Nabumbo Promise and Rosette Brown and finally to her great granddaughter Ayosa Ataraxis Brown. All these women suffer trauma that run from one generation to another. My research explores the portrayal of intergenerational trauma in the text under sub-sections: trauma and collectiveness in motherhood, agents of motherhood in revelation of trauma and finally style of the author. Under style, I have explored the use of symbolism, poetry, epistolary, satire and lexical borrowing in revealing intergenerational trauma in the text. In my study, I have been guided by three theories that I find appropriate even though I am aware there may be others that I have left out. Psychoanalytic, Trauma and Liberal Feminism Theories appealed to me. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is essential in understanding the personalities of the four generations of women and what drives their motives. Trauma Theories guided me in analyzing mental trauma in the Brown’s family. It also helped me to capture the ethical, social, political and historical dimensions that prevail in the text. Liberal Feminism was also instrumental in my analysis as it guided me to assess how a woman’s personal and political autonomy has been enhanced in the text. Things They Lost captures four generations of women that are unable to overcome trauma that escalates conflict in the family and eventually breaks it down.