Ben Okri Laughter Beneath The Bridge Analysis

“it was so uncomfortable and airless in the lorry that I nodded in and out of sleep, the only relief” (Ben Okri in ‘Laughter Beneath the Bridge’)

After reading Okri’s work, especially, ‘Incident at the Shrine’, it feels that dreams are a part of his writings. His full-fledged living characters suddenly or abruptly fell into the world of dream. The story, ‘Incident at the Shrine’ is mostly expresses the story of Anderson who slept and dreamed of amazing things. Okri about his dream logic says: “Childhood is a time when we dream. Let’s bring back this pure way of seeing.”

J. K. Rowling’s imaginative world in ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ is a place of enchantment and witchcraft. But the novelist does not ask us to believe in wands, spells and magic rings. Okri does not have to believe that spirit children exist in the real world. In an interview with Jane Wilkinson (1992), Okri suggests that

characterize Africa and Africans. Dreams are philosophical thinking which personage such deeds and doings that are seemed logical and apt according to the situation.

In most African cultures, history and beliefs have been explained and passed on through oral traditions and storytelling. Many narratives deal with common concepts such as life after death or the birth of the universe, but they also include belief in magic, ancestral spirits, celestial beings, and an assortment of unusual legends that pertain to its animals. Far from being seen as relics from the past, these stories still form an integral part of many Africans’ daily lives and are a testimony to their principles and beliefs. So dreams and their significance have a strong attachment with magic and magical realism.

Dreams are significant in his writings. He uses dreams as a technique of expressing story in his stories such as ‘Dream-vendor’s August’, ‘Incidents at the Shrine’ and ‘Converging City’. He