‘Questioning the Established Truths of the World’ in Marlon James’s novel Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Abstract

Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a beautiful fantasy novel that explores African mythology like never before. Away from the Caucasian fairy tale characters and mythology, the novel had set the bar high for all of the writer Marlon James's future endeavours and all of the other fantasy writers who are yet to breathe life into the literary world. Fantasy, as a genre, has been high on demand since the end of the 20th century, and the novel utilises every literary element to drive the reader through a rollercoaster ride while engaged in the reading process. Marlon James has high expectations from his readers worldwide, which he truly met in his first book of the ‘Dark Start Trilogy’. In the research paper, the researcher analyses the theme of truth present in the storey and the history behind the conception of the novel. The paper analyses the deep emotions associated with truth as a theme and sheds light on the ways truth manifests itself in various forms in the story. There are times when the theme of truth was not directly apparent, but when analysed from a psychological and spiritual view point, the lines give away their participation in building up the theme of truth very clearly. Such is the discussion style of the paper, which will unravel various aspects of the truth inside the novel.