Negotiating Survival Amidst Ambivalences: The Chemistry of Healing in Hyginus Ekwuazi’s The Monkey’s Eyes

Abstract

The role of science in finding solution to an avalanche of issues that bother the human race as well as its overall contribution to the improvement in the quality of life can hardly be quantified. The medical profession in particular has impacted humanity so positively that many diseases that used to pose a serious threat to human existence now succumb to the power of medications and vaccines for their eradication. However, apart from orthodox medications directly administered to patients for recovery, other factors abound which contribute to the recovery process. This is the thrust of this paper which examines the chemistry of convalescence in Hyginus Ekwuazi’s The Monkey’s Eyes. The study adopts trauma theory as well as Richard Sharf’s conceptual perspectives on psychotherapy for its framework. The interpretive design was adopted. A critical analysis of the poems which present the patient-persona, through the stream of consciousness, journeying through the waste land of the hospital, reveals that apart from orthodox medications, the healing process may be affected by the totality of the patient’s psychology influenced, essentially, by the environment of the health facility, the relationship between medics and patients as well as the overall state of things in the health sector of the society. Thus, rather than being a result of a unilateral endeavour, approach or methodology, recuperation ensues from a multipronged effort, factors and conditions.