The Traumatic Effect(s) of Childlessness in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and One is Enough

This paper interrogates the traumatic effect(s) of childlessness in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and One is Enough. It seeks to establish the idea that childlessness can lead to trauma as presented by Flora Nwapa in the two novels under. Nwapa captures the trauma that women who could not bear children in either their early years in marriages or in their entire married life go through in traditional Africa society. In patriarchal society, every marriage has a high hope of procreation or in order to sustain or continue the family linage. When this does not happen, it leads to psychological and emotional trauma in the life of the family especially the woman who is blamed to be the source of the childlessness. The study uses Laura S. Brown’s theory of trauma to explore and analyze the traumatic effects of childlessness in the two novels. One of the findings of this study is that women are always blamed for such situation. This leads to psychological and emotional pains and trauma. The women are psychologically and emotional destabilized, devastated and depressed. It makes the characters helpless and unfulfilled in their marriages and in the society as the joy of motherhood eludes them. This study has added to the corpus of knowledge on the relationship between childlessness and trauma. It would also help practioners in the field to know how to handle those that are in that state. Finally, the study posits that those that are childless should not be treated with disdain.