This file is copyright of Jens Schriver (c) It originates from the Evil House of Cheat More essays can always be found at: --- http://www.CheatHouse.com --- ... and contact can always be made to: Webmaster@cheathouse.com -------------------------------------------------------------- Essay Name : 738.txt Uploader : wayne broderick Email Address : wayneb@seis.com Language : english Subject : Black Awareness Title : a study of no longer at ease Grade : A School System : USM college Country : USA Author Comments : it's a good paper Teacher Comments : A Date : 1995 Site found at : altavista -------------------------------------------------------------- Chinua Achebe An Essay by Wayne Broderick Chineua Achebe, Nigerian writer claims he wrote with specific purposes, having goals he wished to accomplish through his novels. In this paper I will use two of his works to demonstrate the ways in which Achebe held true to his intentions. I will use themes and scenes present in his novels to demonstrate that he does present an accurate view of daily Ibo village life in Things Fall Apart and also an accurate portrayal of the “Culture Shock” that young Obi Okonkwo must have experienced in the novel “No Longer at Ease”. In each novel there is conflict both with peers and with Europeans. Inside these scenes of “life as usual” in Nigeria there are also moral questions embedded in the text. Chineua Achebe himself claims he wants us to answer for ourselves. At the time of Achebe’s birth in 1930 Nigeria was experiencing tremendous unrest. The people of Nigeria were beginning to uprise against British rule. The Nigerians themselves were uncertain which direction their country should head. The British were reluctant to reduce their grip on the country. Nigeria eventually won independence in 1960.(World Book) The point being, that from his birth to the time of the writing of these novels Chineua was a first hand observer of the ways the Nigerians stood up or submitted to the British Whims. In the newspapers he read each day about how the British had one idea after another about how Nigeria should be run. He experienced the ways in which his native culture rebelled against the imposed British rule. (DLB 117) His goals in writing were simple, He claims in an interview with Kay Bonnet that he wished to stimulate the “Education and Reconstruction” his society needed. He wanted to focus on interaction between Africa and Europe. (DLB 117) All too often, Africa was presented as “dehumanized” (Selected essays) He felt that his people were misrepresented by the great works such as Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Joyce Cary's Mr. Johnson. He felt that the “Record needed to be set straight”. (CLC 75). After reading Heart of Darkness he was disgusted to see that he was not on the boat with the cunning adventuresome English. He was one of the twisted faces clapping and jumping around on the shore! After reading Mr. Johnson he was appalled at how this great African poet was actually a buffoon. It was then that he realized that the truth should be told.(CLC 11) Furthermore, Achebe claimed that this disgust in Conrad and Joyce Cary’s misinterpretation of the African culture made him consciously avoid “pulling the punches” in description of Ibo culture. He tells it like it is, like it or not. Another of his goals is to present the reader with questions. In the same interview with Kay Bonett Chineua admits that in his writing he wishes to present questions rather than answers. He feels that if the questions are posed in a meaningful way, the reader will easily find the answers within himself. In his own words: “If you ask the right questions, the answers will be easy.” (CLC 75) We can see now that Achebe, disgusted with misrepresentation of his people committed himself to introducing accurate stories of how Nigerian people interact with changing times, their relationships with others as well as the omnipresent shadow of the British.(DLB1) Although the novels give a good picture of interaction between cultures as well as a picture of Ibo values and lifestyle, the text seems to ask serious moral or ethical questions. In most cases, we are left to judge for ourselves what is right or wrong about a situation. This is Achebe’s goal. Change and how it affects a person or culture may be one of the most important recurring themes in his two novels. We see in various places in the text, examples of changing roles in society, changing religions, in some cases, a change of self identity. In Things Fall Apart the issue of change and how it affects the lead character, Okonkwo is examined. Okonkwo is a man of the past. He cares not for the new religion brought by the British. He is an Ibo warrior, not an English citizen. Okonkwo had himself already cut off five human heads with his own axe. (Achebe 8). Although he was a great and respected warrior, his inability to accept the way the ‘civilized’ British function led to his demise. Through the text we can see Okonkwo’s rage as the messenger who had deceived him previously returns to Umuofia. Okonkwo refuses to fear the power of the British orders and cuts off the messengers head. Had Okonkwo tried harder to accept the ‘new ways’ he might not have killed the messenger, thus preventing his suicide. The scene where the British, seeking revenge for the murdered messenger are led to Okonkwo's dead body is a good example of how Ibo customs are related through the text. We, the readers learn that Ibo cannot even touch the body of a suicide victim because it is crawling with evil. (Achebe 147). On the next page, the commissioner wonders if he might be able to write a whole paragraph about this savage. When we remember that Achebe wrote a whole novel about Okonkwo and the commissioner ‘might write a paragraph’ seems to be asking us “is what is small and petty to Europe is actually very important to a Nigerian?”. These instances are examples of how the author honestly relates Ibo life, asks important questions between the lines of the text and relates the “culture shock” that led to Okonkwo’s death. Some more examples of Ibo attitude, friction between cultures and questions embedded in the text, occur in the scene which begins on page 136. Six leaders of Umuofia were summoned to the British headquarters. The Ibo men brought their axes but left the guns at home to be polite. To be even more polite, the Ibo's put their axes on the floor. The commissioner basically tells the six leaders of Umuofia that Britain is calling the shots now, so smarten up and do as she says. Then the commissioner lets his men shave the heads of these six great (unarmed) leaders and slap them around and starve them to break their will. This is an example of how the Ibo felt about a persons word. The white man said that the six leaders were wanted to work out problems and then beats and kidnaps them. The Ibo didn’t really expect such treachery. This is why Okonkwo is filled with such rage. Furthermore we see how Britain sees the Nigerians as ‘unruly children’, not even deserving honesty from the British. (Achebe 136) Thirdly, this passage might be asking us how the British can justify the restructuring of a whole indigenous culture. In the second novel, No Longer at Ease we see more examples of how change is present as a theme in Achebes work. We will see how change affects Okonkwo’s grandson, Obi Okonkwo. Change focuses again this time, on the changing life of one man and how his British education separates him from his customs and his people. Culture shock appears again, but this time it is the shock of entry into hardcore capitalism (bills, taxes, insurance) which begins to corrupt Obi. Moral questions arise from his experiencing conflict between his new education and the customs of the people who paid for his education. Obi gets a good government job because of his education and he must also struggle to refuse bribes. When Obi returns with his British education he is not the same as his peers anymore. He re-examines the old ways and seems to find them inadequate. An example of this is when he falls into a ‘forbidden’ love with a girl named Clara. She is an ‘osu’ and in the eyes of the Ibo, she is off limits because her grandfather was a walking spirit devoted to a god. (Achebe 94) His elders wish him to stay away from her. The question Obi struggles with is whether he should defy the people who paid for him to get educated in order to be with his true love. Obi is also caught between two cultures. He deals constantly with British customs but is expected to live up to Ibo expectations of what he should be. When his education should have freed him,it ends up holding him back with confusion. We see the clash of culture also. Obi is considered wealthy and is envied by his peers, yet he seems to have no money, living on a shoestring and credit. He begins to dig one pit to fill another. (Achebe 116) He has high status in the Ibo circle but is a relatively low peg on the pole in the English circle. Consider the fact that Obi has forever isolated himself from his people through the renouncing of the old ways his new education and his proposed marriage to Clara. He can never go back to the Ibo, but will still forever be an outsider in the culture of the white man. The text seems to ask us what has Obi Okonkwo gained in his education? At the End of the novel, No Longer at Ease Obi Okonkwo is caught taking bribes and hauled off to jail. First his grandfather disgraced Umuofia with his suicide and now Obi has disgraced them with his criminal ways. His grandfather was killed by his own reluctance to adapt to the new ways. It seems Obi is done in by his desire to change. Obi could not respond to the system he immersed himself in. When Clara the osu left him, he had already lost his people and his parents. Now all he had was the British culture which was financially sucking the life from him. With no respect from his people or parents, he loses respect for himself and begins to take bribes. From there it is a downhill slide into jail. Certainly the reader will wonder if it actually was the loss of his culture and parental respect that caused him to become tainted. This speculation, as Achebe says, is good because the reader will find those answers inside himself. (CLC 75) In this essay I have compared the stated goals of the Nigerian writer Chineua Achebe to scenes and examples in the texts of the two novels considered. I feel that his goal of presenting accurate pictures of Ibo lifestyle has been achieved through his work. When Compared to the simple minded savage working the boiler in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness a much more satisfying image of African humanity emerges through Achebe’s portrayal of two generations of the Okonkwo family. We have seen examples of conflicting cultures and ways in which Achebe weaves many questions into his work. In short, Achebe has satisfied himself and the reader, producing work representative of his own goals and the Nigerian people. Works Cited Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol 117 pages 1-2 Achebe, Chineua Things fall apart Achebe, Chineua No longer at ease Current Biography Yearbook 1992 Contemporary Literary criticism Vol. 75 World Book Encyclopedia page 326 A-H Conrad,Joseph Heart of darkness Selected Essays Doubleday --------------------------------------------------------------