Myths and Metaphors in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God

International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) (An International Refereed Biannual published in January and July) Volume 4 Number 2 (July 2014) ISSN 2231–6248 Abstracted and indexed by Literary Reference Centre Plus, EBSCO Host Publishing, USA for Worldwide Reference WEBSITE: http://www.ijmljournal.com/p/archive.html Edited by Dr. K. V. DOMINIC Cite this article: Choudhury, M. (2014). “Myths and Metaphors in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God”. International Journal on Multicultural Literature. 4(2), 8-15. Published By Dr. K. V. Dominic, Kannappilly House, Thodupuzha East, Kerala, India – 685 585. Email: [email protected]. Phone: +91-9947949159. Web Site: www.profkvdominic.com Blog: www.profkvdominic.blogspot.in 2 3 CONTENTS CRITICAL ARTICLES Myths and Metaphors in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God 08 —Monir Ahmed Choudhury Adapting to Childhood Abandonment in Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountains Echoed 16 —Lata Mishra Multiculturalism and Diaspora—A Critical Exploration of their Interdependence with Reference to V. S. Naipaul’s Half a Life and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake 24 —C. Ganaga Lakshmi & G. Baskaran Cultural Conflict and Identity Crisis in Raja Rao’s The Serpent and the Rope 32 —Rani Rathore Anti-Humanism and the Mythology of Individual Autonomy 37 —Rohit Phutela Loss of African Language, Culture, and Identity in Things Fall Apart 46 —Shamsoddin Royanian & Zahra Sadeghi Exile and Adjustment in Manju Kapur’s The Immigrant 54 —Sandeep Kr. Sheoran The Realistic Themes of Philip Larkin’s Poetry 61 —Deepika Sharma Orientation of Women in the Punjabi Short Stories of Amrita Pritam and Ajit Kour 67 —Kaptan Singh Text as Metaphor: Dynamics of Reading in Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran 76 —Namrata Nistandra 4 Redefining Female Power: A Study of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart 81 —Nirupa Saikia “The Laugh of the Medusa”: Hélène Cixous’s Theory of écriture feminine 88 —J. Pamela Deconstructing Hegemony in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance 95 —Sonia Soni Stigma or Enigma: Cultural Stick-it in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine 102 —R. Vijayalakshmi The Poet of the Marginalised: An Analysis of K. V. Dominic’s Poetry 109 —Anisha Ghosh Paul REVIEW ARTICLE Building Bridges: Poems from Australia & India 119 —Bhaskaranand Jha Bhaskar SHORT STORIES A Short Work 126 —Ramesh K. Srivastava Hours in Sun 131 —Pronab Kumar Majumder School Entrance Festival 135 —K. V. Dominic So Many Faces! 140 —Sharmila Bhattacharjee 5 POETRY The Person I Am Looking For 143 —Hazara Singh Know Thyself 143 —Hazara Singh Spring 15 —Jaydeep Sarangi Mystery of the Land 144 —Jaydeep Sarangi Cherished Goal 145 —Pronab Kumar Majumder Undisclosed Epiphany 146 —Manas Bakshi Call It Culmination 147 —Manas Bakshi Death by Supermarket 148 —Rob Harle The Long Search 149 —Rob Harle Palaces of Hell 150 —Rob Harle We Become a Destination 151 —Vinita Agrawal My Name, a Boat 152 —Vinita Agrawal Abandoned in Old Age 153 —Vinita Agrawal 6 Inner Resilience 154 —Sangeeta Mahesh My Dream 31 —Sangeeta Mahesh Game of Life 36 —Soumyodeep Paul Hues of Life 53 —Soumyodeep Paul River of Knowledge 75 —Soumyodeep Paul Anonymous 155 —Anisha Ghosh In-Between 156 —Anisha Ghosh The Regression 157 —Anisha Ghosh Unnaturally Unaware 158 —Rajiv Khandelwal The Good Old Days 159 —Rajiv Khandelwal Marriage Meal Wounding Matter —S. Ayyappa Raja —S. Ayyappa Raja 161 160 7 SPEECH Stephen Gill’s Speech in Pakistan: Peace and Multiculturalism 162 —Stephen Gill BOOK REVIEW K. V. Dominic’s Multicultural Symphony: A Collection of Poems 165 —Patricia Prime Our Esteemed Contributors 170 8 International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) 4.2 (July 2014) ISSN 2231-6248 pp. 8-15 CRITICAL ARTICLES Myths and Metaphors in Chinua Achebe’s Monir Ahmed Choudhury Arrow of God (1964), Achebe’s third novel, depicts the traditional society from inside in more details than Things Fall Apart. In the novel, Ezeulu, the Chief Priest of Umuaro, questions the wisdom of the present day worldly-wise people to fight a war of blame against the neighbouring clan Okperi at a time when the African society as a whole is in conflict with the external enemy: the white man. However, Ezeulu’s approach and attitude to lead the society in a situation when Umuaro is engaged in internal conflicts and external threats is diverse and complex in nature to such an extent that both his intimate and distant friends, enemies from his own village and the neighbouring, cannot understand his views and stand. Nwaka, who was from the largest village Umunneora and had taken the highest title Eri, led Umuaro to war against Okperi. He was not happy to see that his voice in the clan was getting suppressed by Ezeulu. He believes that Ezeulu is a friend of the white man. When Ezeulu refused to become the Warrant Chief of the white man, like many others, he could not believe it: “How could he refuse the very thing he had been planning and scheming for all these years, his enemies asked?” (Arrow 176). The white man also could not see that Ezeulu had some political powers which he could not compromise readily (Okolo 56). It implies that Ezeulu has a very balanced approach to the white man. His main focus was on the clan. He is concerned on how to empower the people and guide the society forward when the people in general have become cynical and disillusioned. He pondered: Who would have thought that they would disregard the warning of the Priest of Ulu who originally brought the six villages together and made them what they were? . . . Umuaro challenged the deity which laid the foundation of their villages. And-what did they expect?-he thrashed them, thrashed them enough for today and for tomorrow! (Arrow 14) Myths and Metaphors ... Monir Ahmed Choudhury 9 A very close analysis of the reflections shows that the seeds of disintegration and degeneration lie in the traditional society itself. Being a society “without monarchical authorities or centralized political elites”, anyone can lead the community astray (Richards 238). It is the people who have alienated their dead fathers, elders, priests, and gods because of their cynical and contemptuous politics, not in consonance with the religious myths, traditional wisdom and justice system. Ezeulu seems to suggest that the fall of the society is not basically because of the presence of the white man but due to forgetting the very myths of the clan and disobeying the priests and gods of Umuaro who laid the foundation of the clan. He illuminated the Igbo world of Umuaro from inside and tried to diagnose them. At the same time he wanted to empower the community with the knowledge and wisdom of the white man. He did not make the West as ‘the other’. He was an intellectual and a dynamic thinker. He is informed about his own position in his society and the status of his society in the greater world. When he was convinced that the white man had come to stay in Africa, he sent his son Oduche to the school of the white man to learn their knowledge and skills with the hope to defend their traditional society against the white man’s invasion. With all the traditional wisdom, he cogently convinced his son Oduche to get the knowledge of the white man: “I want one of my sons to join these people (the white men) and be my eye there . . . . If you want to see it well you do not stand in one place. My spirit tells me that those who do not befriend the white man today will be saying had we known tomorrow (Arrow 46). Ezeulu was trying to explore the western world through his son, of course, to get the positive things from them. He was “partly conscious of the socially transforming power of literacy” when he was sending Oduche to the white man’s school (Izevbaye 35). He was neither blinded by his own way of life nor got prejudiced against the Western culture. He made an intelligent decision of sending his son to the white man against the will of the whole clan. He believed it was the call of the time. He knows the society changes and every time it changes, based on the wisdom of the Igbo myths, one needs to amend and adjust to succeed in the resistance. Ezeulu attempted albeit in his own ways to combat “the colonial forces with an objective of resisting the changes that the English attempted to bring about in the tribal life of the Igbo” (Mishra 244). He justified his decision of sending his son to the missionary school to his friend Akuebue: 10 International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) 4.2 (July 2014) ISSN 2231-6248 I can see things where other men are blind . . . . I can see tomorrow . . . . A disease that has never been seen before cannot be cured with everyday herbs. When we want to make a charm we look for the animal whose blood can match its power; if a chicken cannot do it we look for a goat or a ram; if that is not sufficient we send for a bull. But sometimes even a bull does not suffice, then we must look for a human. (Arrow 132-33) Ezeulu’s attitude and approach to change and sacrifice is different from the rest of his clan. Ezeulu studied the crossroads of African cultures very closely from all perspectives and sent his son to get the white man’s knowledge to become powerful. He wanted to be enriched with the knowledge and power of both the cultures: the African traditional wisdom and the white man’s, and to fight against the evils of both of them. On the other hand, his society was blinded by their own ways of life. They brought Obika, his son, in a funeral ceremony and got him sacrificed before a god. The sacrifice of Obika’s life before their cultural god shows the difference in attitudes and approaches between the clan’s way of sacrificing a human and that of Ezeulu. Ezeulu sacrificed his son Oduche to the white man’s way of life to enlighten and strengthen his traditional society. He came out with a modern version of traditional concept of human sacrifice. This is the true spirit of Igbo cosmology where man should strive to form new views of the world for change and development. It is evident that Igbo keeps all doors open to explore the world. For them there is no ‘the other’ both in human society and gods. They believe: “‘No condition is permanent’. In Igbo cosmology even gods could fall out of use; and new forces are liable to appear without warning in the temporal and metaphysical firmament” (Hopes 64). That is why they explored new possible ways of facing new challenges which were not prevalent in the traditional society. Dead fathers, elders, common people, artists, priests, and gods all live together in harmony in the composite Igbo society. The artists and the common people do not live a separate life. They believe, “there is no rigid barrier between makers of culture and its consumers. Art belongs to all, and is a ‘function’ of society” (Morning 21-22). In this world, even gods appreciate multiple ways of life and select their priests rather arbitrarily without ignoring less religious people as enemies: “When the time came that Ezeulu was no longer found in his place Ulu might choose the least likely of his sons to succeed him. It had happened before” (Arrow 4). The Igbo people are expected to look at things from Myths and Metaphors ... Monir Ahmed Choudhury 11 multiple perspectives for a balanced judgment. There is no ‘the other world’. The best assertion of this code is found when Akuebue, after teaching Ezeulu’s children about the significance of harmony in the family, advised even Ezeulu, the Chief Priest of Ulu, and concluded: “It is the pride of Umuaro that we never see one party as right and the other wrong” (100). The best image of such a cosmology where men and god co-exist can be seen in the Feast of the New Yam: The festival thus brought gods and men together in one crowd. It was the only assembly in Umuaro in which a man might look to his right and find his neighbour and look to his left and see a god standing there-perhaps Agwu whose mother also gave birth to madness or Ngene, owner of a stream. (Arrow 203) The people of the society in general do not make the West as the other. To them the white man’s presence is just an outsider’s intervention/interruption in the personal and internal ways of African traditional life. When Obika was beaten by Mr. Wright, Akuebue argued with his friend Ezeulu to get justice in the case and then they might warn Obika for his recklessness. He said, “But let us first chase away the wild cat, afterwards we blame the hen” (Arrow 99). In No Longer at Ease, it is the same attitude towards the white man reflected when the members of Umuofia Progressive Union decided to finance the expenditures of an advocate to fight against the white man when Obi Okonkwo, the protagonist of the novel, lost a case of corruption against him. Their attitude was, “The fox must be chased away first; after that the hen might be warned against wandering into the bush” (No Longer 5). Rain played a very powerful metaphorical role in many scenes in the novel Arrow of God. The way Achebe used ‘rain’ as a metaphor shows his ambivalent attitude towards western colonization of Africa. The western colonization of Africa in the third chapter of the novel is depicted as a rain coming to regenerate the continent and as a revitalizing force. At the same time it also shows the socio-cultural conditions of Africa at the threshold of colonization: Although the first rain was overdue, when it did come it took people by surprise. Throughout the day the sun had breathed fire as usual and the world had lain prostrate with shock. The birds which sang in the morning were silenced. The air stood in one spot, vibrating with the heat; the trees hung limp. Then without any sign a great wind arose and the sky darkened. (Arrow 30) 12 International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) 4.2 (July 2014) ISSN 2231-6248 The image depicts what is happening to the traditional African societies at the whirlpool of westernization and the result seems to be positive, optimistic and productive, “The world which had dozed for months was suddenly full of life again, smelling of new leaves to be born” (Arrow 31). This is of course the result of one side of the colonization. The other side of it that is the negative impact of the colonization on the psyche of the people is soon depicted again in the same threads of metaphors. Achebe here depicts what happens to the people when they lose their identity, roots, and dignity, and how they suffer from self-denigration and self-abasement. They leave their home and get blinded by the alien cultures. While aping the foreign ways of life, they lose their own traditions and values. They become ‘man of two worlds’ in the process and face tragedies like Obi Okonkwo, the protagonist of the novel No Longer at Ease. Now Achebe depicts the consequence of such rain/colonization: Thousands of flying ants swarmed around the tilley lamp on a stand at the far corner. They soon lost their wings and crawled on the floor. Clarke watched them with great interest, and then asked if they stung. “No, they are quite harmless. They are driven out of the ground by the rain . . .” (Arrow 35) It summed up symbolically the suffering of the natives under the onslaught of western culture. Those people had lived in their own world in beauty and harmony but all of a sudden they were made to give up their values and culture, and adopt a way of life alien to theirs. In ignorance and naivety they had to pay a heavy price in terms of their lives and culture. When Ezeulu was released from the prison, he set out for Umuaro with Nwodika. It started raining. This rain too can be interpreted metaphorically. At the beginning of the novel it implied how Western culture disoriented the people of Africa cutting them from their roots and traditions. Now it symbolizes how the West had annihilated these very foundations and there was no scope for regeneration or rejuvenation of the traditional society. Thus, when Ezeulu was returning home, he could not walk properly as the ‘new road’ was full of mud: [Ezeulu] crooked the first finger of his left hand and drew it across his brow and over his eyes to clear the water that blinded him. The broad new road was like an agitated, red swamp. Ezeulu’s staff Myths and Metaphors ... Monir Ahmed Choudhury 13 no longer hit the earth with a hard thud; its pointed end sank in with a swish up to the length of a finger before it met hard soil. (Arrow 182) It was a highly metaphoric depiction of the life of Ezeulu and his traditional way of life in the verge of disintegration. The new road symbolizes the western world and his staff stands for the African roots and tradition. He tried to hold on to it for physical and emotional support but with much difficulty and little success. As the future of the African traditional religion was concerned, under such an onslaught, Achebe remained silent. But implications could be drawn from the metaphorical journey of Ezeulu under such a rain: “This rain did not know the boundary. It went on and on until Ezeulu’s fingers held on to his staff like iron claws.” “This is what you have earned for your trouble,” he said to John Nwodika . . .” “It is you I am worried about”. “Me? Why should anyone worry about an old man whose eyes have spent all their sleep? No, my son. The journey in front of me is very small beside what I have put behind. Wherever the flame goes out now I shall put the torch away.” (Arrow 183) This portrayal of Ezeulu giving way for the new generation to lead the society for the upcoming events seems to be in contradiction with the traditional role and functions of the Chief Priest of Ulu. Once back in Umuaru, he again started playing the same traditional role in leading the society. Being the Chief Priest of Ulu, Ezeulu could not get carried away with the changes in the society. However, one can question the validity of his judgment in leading the society because of the crisscrossing of his personal desires with those of “the interests of their community” (Innes 47). The new road that the white man was constructing between two enemy clans, Umuaro and Okperi, can be read metaphorically how the West is unifying the conflicting and fighting clans into one. Achebe saw that as a benefit of the West being in Africa: “. . . But on the whole, it (the West) did bring together many peoples that had hitherto gone their several ways” (qtd. in Killam). In the novel, Achebe also depicted the West’s attitude and approach towards Africa in an impartial manner. True there were typical colonial administrators like Captain Winterbottom who always looked down upon the Africans; there were many others who were not mindless about Africa’s rich tradition and cultural heritage. 14 International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) 4.2 (July 2014) ISSN 2231-6248 The West did not always regard Africa as ‘the other world’. The way they wanted to implement Indirect Rule shows that they looked for ways to facilitate the growth and development of Africa based on her unique social and geographic conditions. For example, the Lieutenant Governor instructed all the administrative officers to implement the policy of Indirect Rule without any further delay to develop Africa more effectively from inside: . . . we endeavour to purge the native system of its abuses to build a higher civilization upon the soundly rooted native stock that had its foundation in the hearts and minds and thoughts of the people . . . . We must not destroy the African atmosphere, the African mind, the whole foundation of his race . . . (Arrow 56-57) So, not all the western colonial administrators branded the whole of Africa as ‘uncivilized’ and ‘the other world’. What they were looking for are the positive aspects of the roots and traditions of African character to develop a western civilization on it. Chinua Achebe had been very much active in interpreting the very process of colonization in Africa. Like the work of the most African writers for instance Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiongo, Achebe’s novels “trace the challenges facing Africans tackling the measure of colonial incursion into culture and the questions of how to decolonize, reform and revivify a national culture” (Mullaney16). By using myths and metaphors in constructing an image of Africa, Achebe has opened up the text for multiple, often diverse, interpretations and tried to make the readers engaged in building a better future for Africa and the world. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. New York: Anchor, 1989. Print. ---. Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays. New York: Anchor Books, 1990. Print. ---. No Longer at Ease. London: Penguin, 2010. Print. ---. Morning yet on Creation Day: Essays. London: Heinemann, 1975. Print. Innes, C. L. The Cambridge Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures in English. New York: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print. Izevbaye, Dan. “Chinua Achebe and the African novel”. The Cambridge Companion to the African Novel. Ed. F. Abiola Irele. New York: Cambridge UP, 2009. 31-50. Print. Myths and Metaphors ... Monir Ahmed Choudhury 15 Killam, G. D. The Writings of Chinua Achebe. London: Heinemann, 1977. Print. Mishra, Radha Kanta. “Ideological Clash Between Primitivism and Modernism: A Thematic Study of Chinua Achebe’s Novels Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God.” Commonwealth Literature in English: (Past and Present). Ed. Amar Nath Prasad and Ashok Kumar. Jaipur: Sunrise, 2009. 236-248. Print. Mullaney, Julie. Postcolonial Literatures in Context. London and New York: Continuum Books, 2010. Print. Okolo, MSC. African Literature as Political Philosophy. London and New York: Zed Books, 2007. Print. Richards, David. “`Canvas of Blood’: Okigbo’s African Modernism.” Comparing Postcolonial Literatures: Dislocations. Ed. Ashok Bery and Patricia Murray. London: Macmillan, 2000. 229-239. Print. Spring Jaydeep Sarangi Following winter and preceding summer A blooming Cherry Sings a happy song. In a time of growth, Renewal of new life People throw water Apply colours on each other. Coloured faces Roll their souls. To talk In a language Emitting life and continuity. People call them holy— Chrysanthemum in Israel Other flowering plants bloom They connect minds, When the orbit is full. 16 International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) 4.2 (July 2014) ISSN 2231-6248 pp. 16-23 Adapting to Childhood Abandonment in Khaled Hosseini’s Lata Mishra Background: And the Mountains Echoed (2013), is an imaginative text, that gives a remarkable impression of relentless storytelling with never-ending tales within tales. Parallel accounts of the same tale also occur that cover a period of several generations and move back and forth between Afghanistan and the nations of the West. The story begins in the preSoviet era and extends to the US attack and further. The spirit of counter-culture pulses through Hosseini’s And the Mountains Echoed. Afghanistan in general and Kabul in particular is depicted at sociocultural, economic and political levels. The story mainly focuses on the relationship between parents and children, and the ways the memories can haunt an individual. In the beginning, a self conscious use of the fairytale form is seen to explore contemporary social and psychological issues such as commitment to homeland and migration, familial bonds and individual freedom. Khaled Hosseini depicts the pervasiveness of mothers and the enmeshed nature of mother-daughter relationships in the novel. For the characters under study in this paper, biological mother is conspicuous by her absence. Pari’s mother died while giving her birth. Madaline elopes with her lover abandoning her daughter, Thalia. Nila’s mother migrates to UK after divorce, leaving Nila with her authoritative father. Roshi’s parents are brutally killed by her paternal uncle. Though Pari is adopted by Nila, she ever remains emotionally unavailable to her. Motherless Abdullah at the age of ten, almost mothers his three years old sister, Pari. When Saboor takes Pari to Kabul, Abdullah is abandoned as he now feels homeless and thinks of leaving home as Pari’s dog Shuja does in Pari’s absence. Nila’s behaviour is not conducive for her adopted daughter’s development as she takes to series of lovers and wayward manners. These characters in their childhood respond in different ways to the lack of emotional nurturance provided by their own mothers. While