With particular reference to any two textual incidents, examine the theme of poverty in the novel -Faceless.
THEME OF POVERTY:
This is so glaring in the novel, Faceless. Every incident in the story is remotely or closely traced to poverty. In Sodom and Gomorrah, a suburb of Accra, Ghana, life is hell for youngsters and to make ends meet, they indulge in all sorts of crime. In one of several discussions between Fofo and Odarley, Pie issue of poverty pre-occupies their discourse: “Fofo”, she called, wanting to make a conversation to make Fofo to talk. “Hm” Do you remember what you said the other time? That you knew poverty?”
“Yes, I saw it”.
“You saw poverty?” Odarley asked, “Head to toe, it’s face, it’s ugly square head; it’s big fat toes, I know its shape like., .“ No matter the shape, poverty is key to the ugly trends in the story. Maa Tsuru’s father is cursed because he cannot take the responsibility for his moral laxity. His inability to own up the pregnancy is because of poverty. Maa Tsuru has given birth to children she cannot cater for. Kwei, the father of some of those children is very poor and cannot fend for Maa Tsuru and her children. These children, Fofo and Baby T. end up in the streets just to eke out a living. Down there in the street, they face the ugly stings of life, being pushed by extreme poverty to indulge in prostitution, drugs, stealing etc. This assertion is supported by Sylv Po’s studio guest, who once said;
“You see, there is a lot of pain arid hopelessness out there on the streets which many seek to deal with through drugs, sex and alcohol”.
Furthermore, in another study on the main factors contributing to the ugly situation, Ms. Kamame promptly responds: “The obvious one appears to be poverty because there are some very poor parents…who allow their children to go into the streets to do all sorts of odd things for survival”. Indeed, poverty is central in the story Faceless and other themes emanate from this.