Literature and Character Education: The Interdisciplinary Reflections in Chimamanda Adichie’s “Cell One” and “Tomorrow Is Too Far”

Abstract

The interdisciplinary nature of literature cannot be refuted as its spreads transversely into many other disciplines. Being instructive in nature, it affects human behaviour, hence its interdisciplinarity with character education. With the use of two of Chimamanda Adichie’s short stories in The thing around your neck: “Cell One” and “Tomorrow is Too Far”, this paper examines the connectedness between literature and character education using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis which explicates the concept of the tripartite psyche as the basis of the analysis. The study reveals that the integration of the knowledge of literature and character education, contributes to problem solving as regards children’s character development. It calls on parents to maximize their position in their children’s lives in serving as the Freudian superego which works against the drive of the id, and functions according to the morality principles