JOURNAL ARTICLE
Keywords: Verdict, deconstruction, supernatural beings, humans, fate.
Abstract: There is an avalanche of hermeneutic interpretations of a literary text as postulated by deconstructionists and postmodernists, this has paved way in this study for the new evaluation of Ola Rotimi canonical text, The Gods Are not to Blame whose previous critical analysis has prologuized the overwhelming and inevitable influences of the gods in the affairs of the mortals. In spite of the over reliance on the supernatural tendencies of the gods in human affairs orchestrated by the extant scholarly views on the text, this paper depicts that the actions of the gods are inconsequential to the affairs of humans. Inspirations are drawn from Roland Barthe’s model of Deconstruction as an offshoot of literary Poststructuralism. The essence of Deconstruction is to investigate the weaknesses of the gods and prioritize the strengths of the protagonist in the text; it is also used to privilege human struggles above the mere predictions of the gods. The primary text is subjected to critical textual analysis, our research instrument is the library both the conventional and the internet. It is discovered that the gods are not all-knowing as claimed in the text. It is significantly discovered that the gods are weak and wantonly avaricious in their interventions in human affairs. It is notably found out that the author writes in Aristotle’s convention of tragedy where the gods abrogate supremacy over the humans to create pathos and catharsis in order to portray man as a mere toy in their hands. Succinctly, deconstructing the text avails the depiction of a new verdict that incriminates the gods as against the old verdict that exonerates the gods in human tragic fate.
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