DIE VERHEERENDEN AUSWIRKUNGEN DES KRIEGES AUF DIE FAMILIE FÄHMEL IN HEINRICH BÖLLS BILLARD UM HALB ZEHN: EINE LEHRE FÜR DIE NIGERIANISCHE GESELLSCHAFT.

This work studies the effects of war with the focus of discouraging bellicosity, which is a propensity to engage in warfare. In carrying out the research work, the researcher made use of Heinrich Böll’s Billard um halb zehn. This research work lays emphasis on the areas which form the leitmotiv of the selected prose work: the World War II, the destruction and loss of lives engendered by the war, the discouragement of war as a means of settling disputes and a call to embrace pacifism in resolving the conflicts both in Nigeria and elsewhere. In the various sub-titles, the text is analysed and because of the extensive nature of the topic, other materials were consulted in a historico-literary examination to show why pacifism should be embraced by all and sundry. From the analysis, it is discovered that war does not really lead to the resolution of conflicts; rather it creates more complex conflicts.
With the application of New Historicism, the researcher relates the events in the novel to the true chronicle of the World War II; pointing out pacific attempts and condemning bellicose tendencies. Nigerians should learn a lesson from the analysis of the effects of the war on Germans and discourage a future occurrence of war in Nigeria. This is a clarion call, most especially, on the youths to embrace peace, not battle, especially now that the wind of war is blowing in the country; because to live in peace is to be alive.