Ben Okri's The Famished Road (1991) captures the innocent perspective of a child caught up in the turmoil of Nigeria's independence. Azaro, the young protagonist, grows up in an unnamed rural village in the midst of change [presumably Nigeria]. A "spirit child" Abiku, shuttles between the spirit world and the living, his divided ontological state symbolizing the external conflicts between traditional Nigeria and the imposing Western world. Like Abiku, a child "predestined for death", Azaro defies his fate in his tenuous survival, tormented by his spiritual companions who attempt to take his life and return him to the spirit world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Famished Road is a hybrid genre, based primarily on magical realism that allows for the integration of fantastical experiences into realistic fiction. In this way Okri refutes the alleged superiority of Western knowledge systems. It constructs the spirit world as a tangible embodiment of traditional knowledge, equally real to the more familiar reality of the living world. In the messiness of Western and Nigerian knowledge systems colliding before independence, Okri seeks to reject the supposed superiority of Western knowledge; “Everyone's reality is superstitions” (Okri, 2000). In the novel, Azaro's awareness "that the ghosts and spirits were in the house because the officer had somehow been responsible for their deaths" (31), shows how Azaro's dual perspective "neutralizes any possibility of establishing a hierarchy between magic and non-magic". representations” (Whyte, 2013). Through the interaction of the two realms, the novel blurs the boundaries of reality, seamlessly transitioning between phantasmagorical and real scenes. This creates an uncertain reality caught between conflicting contexts, so knowledge becomes indeterminate. Within this ignorance manifests itself. Although not acknowledged throughout the novel, it grips individuals and society amidst the plethora of changes, where the validity of knowledge and its relevance are constantly evolving. Fear, chaos, faith, and hope are all proliferated by ignorance, and ignorance continually dictates human propensities on individual, social, and existential scales. Okri divulges the role of ignorance through its negative, positive and existential forms, also considering the individual's awareness of its influence. The Famished Road captures the concept of ignorance as a reflection of its context, distorting Western prejudices about what constitutes knowledge into a broader perspective. Therefore, this essay seeks to expose ignorance through the question, “How does Ben Okri describe ignorance in The Famished Road?” Basically, ignorance comes from a lack of knowledge. Knowledge is obtained from contexts, from experiences. Therefore, narrow circumstances lead to the manifestation of ignorance. Azaro exists within a narrow context. A poor child in rural Nigeria, his world is made up of the few places he frequents: his home, Madame Koto bar and the forest. Beyond this, the descriptions become distorted and transitory where “all paths had fractured” (78), suggesting his inability to understand knowledge existing beyond his contained reality. His own youth also limits his exposure to knowledge, with “You're too young to feel all this” (305) reflecting how society creates contextual restrictions to protect. Within this, the knowledge held reflects whatit is necessary for each individual, since Azaro does not need superfluous knowledge that is not essential for survival. This, however, is a concept distorted by well-being. With poverty, the father's attempts to gain esoteric knowledge through the purchase of books cripples his family, as "his son is starving, his wife is thin" (419). In contrast, "We saw her learning to drive the car" (433) shows Madame Koto's indulgence in new learning, a luxury afforded only with wealth. In this, ignorance reflects socio-economic means. Ignorance also reflects age. As Azaro matures, his immersion in the "living world" (3) expands, while his interactions with the spiritual world diminish, and his ignorance innately echoes this. «As a child I could read people's minds. I could predict their future.' (11) Mind reading is an ability that quickly fades, as Azaro's initial close affiliation with the spirit world diminishes. With this, his immersion in the living world expands, and so does his knowledge: "muttering in an ancient monotone about how hard life was, I listened intently, for I had begun to understand something of what he meant" (177) . Azaro's loss of spiritual knowledge and skill is replaced by practical understanding, thus reflecting his evolving context. Okri also manipulates the structure to reflect Azaro's evolving knowledge, as the illusory and twisted scenes of the spirit world become increasingly rare amid the more corporeal experiences of the living world. Change is described as closely linked to ignorance. Within the novel, the uncertainty of contrasting contexts creates difficulty in discerning knowledge from ignorance. «The rain made everything strange. Its persistence has altered my vision. After a while it seemed to me that behind the screen there was a bazaar of mysteries, a forbidden subcontinent.' (334) Rain, a symbol of transitions within the novel, blurs reality. Confusion arises as a specific form of ignorance since "The struggle became confused." It seemed like everyone was hitting everyone else.' (327). With change, knowledge fluctuates and ignorance becomes dominant. From this, ignorance is depicted as an evolving phenomenon that reflects both physical and social contexts in the novel. Starting from this idea of ​​ignorance as possessing only irrelevant knowledge, Okri describes ignorance as benign. Yet ignorance is not an irrelevant force. It can be beneficial, building a drive for knowledge. In a surreal dream sequence, a community of spirits works on building a road. They possess “an infinity of hope and an eternity of struggle.” Nothing can destroy them but themselves and they will never finish the road that is their soul and they don't know it.' (379) In this, Okri insinuates that their existence is sustained by ignorance of the futility of their toil. Ignorance relieves the burden of knowledge, manifesting hope. Furthermore, ignorance alludes to the occurrence of curiosity, implied in 'these could be the reasons why I wanted to be born - these paradoxes of things, the eternal changes, the enigma of living while alive' (559). Humanity's discomfort with the unknown stimulates progress. In the title, The Famished Road, the metaphorical road of life is intrinsically linked to our hunger for more. “And since the Road was once a river, it was always hungry” illustrates the infinite ignorance we ceaselessly seek to fill by sustaining ourselves. The denial of his own inability is also evident in Azaro's father's political attempts. His futile search for support is quashed when “most of them slammed himbrings in his face." (467) Ignorance, however, instills an unhindered energy as "his passion began to drive us crazy." (469) It is ignorance of his limitations that gives him power. But for the mother of Azaro, whose “eyes were half closed as if ceaselessly trying to shut out most of what they saw” (265), ignorance is not sought for power, but liberation from reality. Likewise, drunkenness is an escape from the oppressive state of knowledge, as “A man must be able to hold his drink because drunkenness is sometimes necessary in this difficult life (42) This ignorance-seeking mentality also presents itself at the level.” In the Azaro community, the cyclical existence of Abiku children suggests that infant mortality is simply due to the actions of restless spirits, with the community's belief sustained only through denial of the finality of death from the burdensome truth. This freedom is further explored in spirits. Ignorant of the living world and "unwilling to come to terms with life" (4), their intentional restriction of context ensures that they remain unaware of sublunary suffering. And with that comes freedom. “We played so much because we were free” (3) and “freedom in the captivity of freedom” (559) contrasts directly with Azaro's experience in the living world “burdened by the inscrutability of life” (8). Because of their ignorance, the spirits "knew no boundaries" (3), with Okri implying that the denial of limitations renders them immaterial. Ignorance, in this context, is shown as liberating, the spiritual world existing in the ignorance of suffering: 'The world of pure dreams, where all things are made of enchantment, where there is no suffering' (4) . The ignorance of spirits both towards suffering and towards their own limitations is being emancipated. However, Okri describes this state of ignorance and bliss as a "dream". Images such as “sweet-tasting moonlight” (4) and “floating in the aquamarine air of love” (4) construct the idea that their context is illusory. Ignorance of reality is shown as liberating, but denial of reality creates worlds that are not entirely substantial or real, rather dreamlike. One might think that this reflects the reality of a child, where the boundaries between real and imaginary are blurred by ignorance of the boundaries of reality. Ignorance is a blessing, but pleasure is an illusion. In the village of Azaro, ignorance often has a darker portrayal, with the inhabitants inundated with great changes. The ambiguous figure of Madame Koto and her rapidly progressing bar symbolize the transformations. Throughout the novel, electricity replaces candles, politicians replace spirit clients, and Madame Koto herself's increasing fatness reflects her rapidly growing wealth. It is this evolving context that introduces incongruous knowledge into Azaro's village. "A crowd of illiterates gathered in front of the bar... They saw the cables, the wires, the pylons in the distance, but they didn't see the famous electricity." (427) Electricity is completely foreign to the villagers. In relative terms, he did not exist for them before his investiture in Bar Madame Koto. Before, their ignorance about electricity made no sense. As contexts change, their ignorance takes on new meaning. "The inhabitants of the area, who had no hope of being invited to the party, put on their best clothes and wandered around the tent, hoping to catch a glimpse of the wild party, hoping even more for a meeting of change, a business card outer darkness where we all looked.' (517) Previously irrelevant knowledge createssuddenly a clear divide, as the well-informed shun those in uniform. In this, ignorance reflects necessity, but necessity reflects the ever-changing context. However, the need for certain knowledge can be misunderstood. In reality, information that is essential or soon becomes essential is often overlooked. In the novel, in the midst of political unrest, the inhabitants of Azaro's village rebel against the two parties. Azaro notes that it was "a night without memory". It was a night that repeated its corrosive repetition on the path of our lives." (211) Despite its significance, ignorance soon consumes it as "People had forgotten, and those who hadn't, just shrugged their shoulders and said that it all happened a long time ago, and that things they were too complicated for such memories." (443) The riot is considered irrelevant. Yet Okri insinuates that the dismissal of history as trivial is what brings about the “corrosive recurrence on the road of our lives.” (211) It is ignorance of past errors that leads to their inevitable reappearance. This builds the overall portrayal of ignorance as harmful when absent knowledge is important. This extends the concept of harm derived from the loss of knowledge that becomes relevant, through spatial, temporal or cultural contextual change. However, ignorance is not simply passive. Often, obtaining information requires prior knowledge. Illiteracy, the inability to read and write, incapacitates the father as he "began to spend much of the money he had won buying books." He couldn't read but he bought them.' (468) He tries to reduce his ignorance by accessing information in books, but his ignorance of literacy limits him. His prolific boxing and reliance on physical strength eventually paralyze his mind with vivid hallucinations, but his illiteracy traps him, his political attempts futile. His ignorance hinders his attempts to gain knowledge. Ignorance is both self-perpetuating and disabling. Vulnerable populations are an inevitable consequence of ignorance. Through the desperate request for understanding, combined with illiteracy in the context, distorted conceptions often arise. With Madame Koto's sudden wealth, the false rumors that "they said she drank human blood to prolong her life and that she was over 100 years old" (428), are readily accepted by the villagers. Their deceptive theories are mainly due to their innate desperation to understand. However, it is also due to their prior contextual understandings. In the context of Nigeria, witchcraft is a legitimate explanation for his sudden success. At the beginning of the novel, the images surrounding Madame Koto, "cauldron of pepper soup" (120) and "the white pearls she had dug in the ground at night" (120), authenticate Madame Koto's witchcraft claims in context of traditional Nigeria. However, in the Western context to which Madame Koto ascends, magic is not knowledge. Despite this, the community's illiteracy in the new context means that rumors are accepted as fact: “The stories have forever distorted our perception of its reality. Slowly, they took over his life, made themselves real and made it opaque to our eyes.' (429) Their need to understand frames falsehoods as facts, exacerbating ignorance. The constant concomitant of ignorance is fear. 'I came to a place I had never seen before in my life. All the houses were gigantic, the trees were small, the sky low, the air golden. I tried to get out of this place." (78) Rich Western homes are the symbol of the newcontext, an unknown context that instills fear. In front of a record player, Azaro "ran away for the second time, escaped from that inhuman thing, and fell backwards, stumbling" (314). In this, ignorance is both the cause of fear and the result. His initial inability to understand the device causes his fear, and the fear repels him, limiting his ability to learn. This too defines the characteristics of spirits, with the fear of "human beings' scrupulosity" (3) and the "rigors of existence" (3), keeping them trapped in their refusal to live. Ignorance in this sense feeds itself. However, what must be considered is the role of circumstances in defining the representation of ignorance. Infantilism, a trait derived from the presence of ignorance that evolves from few experiences, is strictly attributed to childhood. This makes ignorance unique and therefore, when observed in an adult, the endearing trait becomes repugnant. In the father, a childlike personality emerges after his fight with the Green Leopard [A Mystical Boxing Legend], as he succumbs to an illness of madness and confusion. During the illness his mental abilities are reduced "as if he were the largest baby in the world". (410) He was “tragic in his grotesque condition as an adult trapped in the consciousness of a child.” (411) His ignorance concerns his most immediate context, his body. However, knowledge is expected to come with exposure to new contexts, so the father's basic ignorance goes against convention and is therefore bizarre. The father's illness and behavior, in particular, reflect Nigeria's position in the new world, as an ancient nation suddenly reduced to infancy due to their ignorance of global affairs. In the novel, ignorance removed from its accepted place is disconcerting and uncomfortable, portraying ignorance as acceptable solely in its specific context. Within Okri's representation of ignorance is the gap between acceptance and rejection of ignorance. For Azaro's mother, her ignorance is consciously acknowledged. He tells Azaro, “You must like school.” If your father had gone to school we wouldn't suffer so much. Learn everything you can learn. This is a new era. Independence is coming." (109) She acknowledges her past disdain for knowledge, wanting Azaro to learn what she could not. In this Okri recognizes the presence of a new concept of knowledge; self-awareness. Admitting existence of ignorance allows its exploitation as a positive state. On the contrary, oblivion towards ignorance can be harmful. The antithesis of the mother lies in Azaro's father. «Dad began to spend much of the money he had won by buying books. He couldn't read but he bought them.' (468) He seeks contextually extrinsic knowledge without capacity for understanding. He ignores his own ignorance. This forgetfulness is evident in the creation of the Beggar's Party, where the outlandish plans to "become a politician and bring freedom and prosperity to the world" (467) they push him to create the Beggars' Party, since "a new idealism had eaten into his brain" (468). He becomes so infatuated with his own aspirations that he ignores his surroundings. “He seemed to look at people as if they were transparent, insubstantial” (403) shows his inattention to his reality. His ignorance of himself creates inferiority. The father's illiteracy and lack of understanding of the Western context are evident, particularly in his attempts to decipher foreign notions. Yet, in this case, he seems to admit his own shortcomings: "It didn't take long for Dad to realize he didn't know what he was talking about" (469). But he, despite his admission, ignores it,insisting on taking on an authoritative role, trying to provide information: «People began to bring their problems to him, when they asked him for money, for advice on everything from how to get their children admitted to hospital to how to get books for their own children" (470). By conveying inaccuracies as facts, especially in the absence of a rational understanding of the new context, false ideas quickly spread. His lack of awareness allows the contagious and almost insidious nature of ignorance to evolve. Lack of awareness is also seen as defensive, particularly in indifference to introducing knowledge into the new context. Azaro states that "The world was changing and I continued to wander as if everything was still the same." Their attempts to preserve normality lead to a failure to recognize change, as they "complained about the way children no longer respected their elders and blamed everything on the lifestyle of the white man who was ruining the values ​​of Africa". They actively reject Western knowledge, unaware of its growing significance. Therefore, awareness of ignorance is not static, due to the constant evolution of knowledge. The Famished Road constructs ignorance as an inexorable state of being. Through this, Okri seeks to remove the concept of guilt or inferiority as ignorance affects everyone in unfamiliar contexts without discrimination. Ignorance is inevitable and its acceptance is imperative. First, ignorance is not exclusive to traditional inhabitants. Although not as widely explored, villagers' unfamiliarity with the intrusion of the West is reflected in the inexperienced white men upon their arrival in Nigeria. The inability to understand unfamiliar contexts is universal. Although the novel focuses on the trials of Azaro's village, the ignorance is not unique to them. With the intrusion of “white men” into rural Nigeria, ignorance occurs. When immersed in an unfamiliar environment, everyone is rendered unaware. Azaro's repeated wanderings see him come across a construction site, which serves as a small representation of the sea change gripping Nigeria. Western workers are at the mercy of Nigerian traditions, knowledge and understandings rooted in context, and are therefore ignorant of local knowledge and dogmas. When a construction worker "steps on the lizard's head," the environment reacts; "the flies tormented him/the red ants formed an army". (320) Okri uses personification to represent the white men's ignorance of the meaning of the land, their isolation in an unknown context that makes them victims. «Suddenly the path turned into a ditch. The earth moved... The white man screamed, his binoculars flew into the air and I saw him slip out of sight.' (331) The white man, equipped with binoculars and glasses, tools often associated with the acquisition of information, is unable to understand his surroundings, creating powerless individuals. In this no system of knowledge is superior to another; everyone is illiterate in foreign contexts. Ignorance arises from the existence of multiple knowledge systems. Furthermore, Okri removes the supposed superiority of Western culture. Before independence, rural Nigeria had an isolated knowledge system. From the point of view of the inhabitants, the Western world did not exist. It was 'a fairyland that no one could see' (242), so Western knowledge can be considered non-existent. In the traditional Nigerian context, the inhabitants were well informed: 'In ancient times they came to learn from us. My father told me that we taught him to count. We have.