THE QUEST FOR MEANING ACROSS TIME AND CULTURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SAMUEL BECKETT'S WAITING FOR GODOT AND JENNIFER MAKUMBI'S THE FIRST WOMAN

The human desire to find or create meaning is an enduring focus in literature. This study examines the human quest for meaning across time and culture by comparing Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Jennifer Makumbi’s The First Woman. While Beckett presents a world of waiting, silence, and existential emptiness, Makumbi shows how storytelling, family history, myths, and women’s voices help create meaning. Using a comparative literary approach, the study explores how time, waiting, human connection, speech and silence, symbols, and cultural and social factors shape the search for purpose. Findings show that Beckett reflects universal existential concerns about uncertainty and the limits of language, whereas Makumbi demonstrates how culture and history enable identity, agency, and hope. In conclusion, the research highlights that the search for meaning is both universal and culturally specific, and it emphasizes the value of cross- cultural literary study in understanding how humans everywhere confront life’s uncertainties and strive to create purpose