NATURE-NURTURE DICHOTOMY IN A SELECTED NOLLYWOOD FILM

Abstract

The level of anti-social behavioural patterns in Nigeria has almost reached its crescendo. In our society today, there are cases of armed
robbery, kidnapping, political thuggery, and sexual immoralities amongst others. All these have eaten deep into every aspect of Nigerian society. Many filmmakers have portrayed these themes in their films as a way of reflecting the society, but just a few of them have portrayed the root causes of these antisocial behaviours, some only glorify these issues which have done more harm than good to the Nigerian society. However, this research work investigates the two major propelling and influential factors to the above worrisome behaviours, which are; nature (Biological) and nurture (Environmental) factors as emphatically portrayed in a few Nollywood films. Consequently, a Nollywood film. Nimbe (2019), was identified and selected purposively as a case study for critical evaluation of the research topic. The researchers adopt the content analysis approach of qualitative research methodology and also utilise Emile Zola’s theory of Naturalism as a theoretical framework to show how nature and nurture control human behaviour and how filmmakers can use their arts to educate, correct and reflect society. The researchers, through content evaluations of the filmic characters in the selected film, found out that trait development in humans is greatly influenced by nature or nurture elements as witnessed in the case study. For instance, the character of Nimbe metamorphoses from being a good person to  being a bad one because of nurture elements such as peer association, social norms and bad parenting.