Criticism Research on Chinua Achebe
...radition: that art is, and always was, at the service of man. Achebe's feel for the African context has influenced his aesthetic of the novel as well as the technical aspects of his work As Bruce King comments in Introduction to Nigerian Literature: "Achebe was the first Nigerian writer to successfully transmute the conventions of the novel, a European art form, into African literature." In an Achebe novel, King notes, "European character study is subordinated to the portrayl of communal life; European economy of form is replaced by an aesthetic appropriate to the rhythms of traditional tribal life." Chinua Achebe first three novels, Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, and Arrow of God, have been published as a trilogy. A Man of the People was later added to the group. Things Fall Apart, Achebe’s first novel, has probably been paid the most critical attention of the four. In 1971, Kate Turkington said “…it [Things Fall Apart] gave for the first time in English, in a strong comfortable, subtle prose; a picture of an alien society that most people outside had never heard about or been interested in. The British may have ‘occupied’ Nigeria for 100 years, but they knew little or nothing of the indigenous culture they imposed their own civilization upon.” Turkington suggests that at surface level, Things Fall Apart is a historical novel but the main character, Okonkwo, is “Everyman” facing the unknown and the ordeal is universal. Agreeing with Turkington is D. Killam, who said that Achebe’s reputation “rest principally on his first novel, Things Fall Apart.” However, Killam differs from Turkington by implying that Achebe’s “attempt” to realistically capture the downfalls of the Ibo society is not “wholly true” because the point of view is biased. There is a part in the novel, No Longer at Ease, where Obi is being interviewed for appointment to the Civil Service post and a discussion takes place between Obi and the chairman on the nature of tragedy, and concludes with this speech by Obi: ‘Real tragedy is never resolved. It goes on hopelessly for ever. Conventional tragedy is too easy. The hero dies and we feel a purging of the emotions. A real tragedy takes place in a corner, in an untidy spot, to quote W.H. Auden. The rest of the world is unaware of it. Like that man in A Handful of Dust who reads Dickens to Mr. Todd. There is no release for him. When the story ends he is still reading. There is no purging of emotions for us because we are not there.’ Killam proposes Achebe periodically loses his objectivity and breaks the dramatic pattern of the novel by obtruding himself between his book and his readers. Killam believes that Achebe achieves balance and proportion in his theme of political corruption by showing both the absurdity of much of the behavior of the principal characters and the destructive consequences of that behavior. Since the 1950's, Nigeria has witnessed "the flourishing of a new literature which has drawn sustanence from both traditional oral literature and from the present and rapidly changing society," writes Margaret Laurence in her book Long Drums and Cannons: Nigerian Dramatists and Novelists. Thirty...