Finally, in No Longer at Ease, Okonkwo's grandson, educated in England, returns to a civil-service job in Lagos, only to see his morality erode as he clings to his membership in the ruling elite. But he believes himself to be untouchable and is determined to lead his people, even if it is towards their own destruction. Arrow of God takes up the ongoing conflict between continuity and change as Ezeulu, the headstrong chief priest, finds his authority is under threat from rivals and colonial functionaries. The trilogy opens with the groundbreaking Things Fall Apart, the tale of Okonkwo, a hero in his village, whose clashes with missionaries - coupled with his own tragic pride - lead to his fall from grace. In these masterly novels, Achebe brilliantly imagines the lives of three generations of an African community as their world is upended by the forces of colonialism from the first arrival of the British to the waning days of empire. Additionally, colonization as an agent of change can be analyzed and paralleled to other agents in the context of modern society."Chinua Achebe is considered the father of modern African literature, the writer who "opened the magic casements of African fiction." The African Trilogy-comprised of Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, and No Longer at Ease-is his magnum opus. In that regard, gender in the novel can be used to show the way social roles are shaped in such a society. The latter can be seen in that one of the consequences of diversity, multiculturalism, and globalism is gradually erasing the distinctive features of each culture and mixing them into one large melting pot of various cultures.įinally, the ideas that can be used in class are mainly related to showing examples of early social structures, groups, and social roles. Does the author’s view support holding on to the culture and the tradition despite some of its negative aspects? Examples of negative aspects can be seen in the sacrifice process, the role of women, and others.Īnalyzing the novel on a larger scale, it can be stated that the ideas of cultural diversity, multiculturalism, and globalism do not seem to fit into the idea of tradition opposing changes. In that regard, the colonization in the novel can be considered as one of the main driving forces of change to which Okonkwo was so resistant.Īccordingly, the questions that might be raised are concerned with the overall idea of cultural change. The main conclusion that can be drawn from reading about the culture in the novel is that despite considering the culture as non-static and adaptive to changes, the example of Okonkwo shows the opposition of tradition to such changes. Additionally, the religion was represented by showing that the highest level of divine beings is the supreme god, or “Chukwu”, a loving father who should be feared when doing against his will (Achebe, 1996 Froiland, 2010). One element can be seen in the absence of a ruler in the tribe, where “decisions made by including almost everyone in the village” (Froiland, 2010), an aspect that was truthfully reflected in the novel (Achebe, 1996, p. This culture still exists and many of its elements were realistically depicted in the novel. The culture of the tribe that was depicted in the novel was of the Igbo culture. A form of democracy was also present in such an establishment, where the main political and social aspects were determined through clan meetings. The relations with Umuofia, the clan to which Iguedo belonged, might be seen as a representation of a simple political system within the Nigerian tribes at the time, which included wars, peaceful settlements, and mediations through an authoritative party (the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves) (Achebe, 1996, p. In that regard, Iguedo can be seen as an example of a traditional Nigerian tribe with a distinctive social structure. Although Iguedo is a fictional village, the novel took a realistic approach toward depicting the life of the Nigerian tribes.
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