Abstract:
Literature is very important because it uses language in an artistic manner for the purpose of enlightening us about people‟s lives in a society. It also focuses on the ways of life in a society. Literature entertains, educates, encourages and emphasizes good morals. It also warns and helps in rectifying bad behaviour. Previous research show that children characters are portrayed negatively as they are denied their rights in Kiswahili plays. This study carried out an analysis of the portrayal of children characters in four selected modern Kiswahili novels. These are Kiu and Nyota ya Rehemaby Mohamed Suleiman Mohamed; Kichwa Maji and Rosa Mistika by Euphrase Kezilahabi. The main objective of this research was to investigate how children are portrayedin the selected novels. This study was based on three objectives. First it was to investigate children representation in the modern Kiswahili novels, to identify roles played by children characters in the selected novels and to discover adults‟ attitude towards children characters in the selectd novels.The research investigated young children and youths. This is because children characters have always been used in literary works for a long time but are never focused on by critics. This research forms an eye opener on the portrayal of them. The study was premised on the theory of Realism which was founded by the Progressive Class in France. Among the founders were people like, Balzac, Stendhal and Flaubert. Realism theory is used by writers to highlight things that take place in the society. To generate data, a library based design and internet were used. The generated data was analysed on the basis of of research questions. The qualitative research design was used whereby the researcher gave explanations on the portrayal of children characters and the language used by adults towards children and its effects on them. Tables were used to show the summary of the collected data. The findings of this study disclosed that children characters face challenges like not being fed well, not educated, they are abused sexually and are denied inheritance of their parents‟ property. They played roles like; prostitution, theft, digging, preparing and selling traditional beer.The findings also showed that adults had negative attitudes towards children characters in the analysed novels. The deamining language they used proved this clearly. Abusive words like; prostitute, mad, wild cat and nuisance were used to refer to some of the children characters in the analysed novels. Finally, the researcher gave the summary of the study and recommendations on the areas for further research. It is hoped that the findings of this study will help scholars more especially the authors of literature books to portray children characters positively.
