Chinua Achebe and Politics of Narration †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Chinua Achebe and Politics of Narration. Answer: Introduction: Chinua Achebes Girls at war is a story of political Nigerian culture. The essay consists of all the shades and angles of the same. The writer of the story, opines the fact that it is not necessary to memorize something in order to know something. The writer believes in fact that it is important to present the experience in good language and in good form with the use of ornamental literature in order to present any incident that attract the readers towards the incident. The writer is an African English-language writer. He uses the power of his language to reveal the aspects of the political culture of Nigeria. He concentrates on both the literary aspect as well as the aspect (Williams and Patrick). Through the strong impact of the story of Achebe it can be analyzed that the story describes the situation of war between the seceding state of Biafra and Nigeria. The theme as well as the plot of the story is represented in the auxiliary sentence at the time of introducing the central characters of the story. It has been observed that the characters meet for the first time and nothing actually happened between them. The second time they met at the checkpoint at Akwa (Gale). At their second meeting the girl who was named Gladys, stops the car of Reginald Nwankwo in order to inspect it. The incident excited him and made him more delightful. He found him in an absolute way that a girl must be in. The girl was dressed up in a fluffy blue jersey, in khaki jeans and she wore a canvas shoe and she carried a new style of hair plait. He started to respect the militia girls whom he had seen earlier. He was carried by the look of Gladys and he thought her to be quite mature enough. He respecte d the patriotic and the perceptive form of her. He thought she was invincible. The story takes the readers to the third encounter between the two. The things went to a worst situation in the third encounter (Lynn and Thomas). The story raises the important theme of war and the consequences related to the political system. The headiness was long chased by death and starvation. Reginald was coming back to Owerri in order toobtain food obtain food after his influence as an official. The site that was seen during this time was unfortunate and it occurred under the vision of a starving crowd who mocked and taunted him. This was a huge embarrassment for him as he was a noble man and he had an ideal image in the society (Siddique and Rumana). He was at an odd situation and he realized that at that time he could do nothing for the crowd. Soon in the next moment, Gladys was found to walk in the crowd and some amount of change was occurred in her. She was decked up in make-up, she wore a wig, she wore new clothes which seemed to be the sign of bureaucrat and undoubtedly a corrupted one. She recalled that she searched for him long ago, when he used to admire her. The situation is not the same now (Gagiano and Annie) . Later when they went to a party, they found a white Red Cross man. The man narrated the story where he lost his friend in an air crash. An African officer who was admired and considered to a hero by many girls including Gladys, the strong protagonist of the story, slapped him. Gladys appeared to be the female protagonist of the story and she appeared to be the banal and an improvident child (Aguilera and Ana). Gladys goes to bed in her home with Reginald. She used some course language and this surprised Reginald. After such experience, he began to think that she was nothing but only a reflection of a rotten and maggoty society. She needed some cleaning in the same way as a clumsy mirror is cleaned when it is dirty. He later explores the fact that she was under some kind of terrible influence. Finally, he decided to help her by giving her food and money. They went together to her house. He was inquisitive to see her friends and the persons attached to her and the ones she mixes with i n order to get to the base of her life. He wanted to go to know the bottom of her life in order to understand the reason of her such behavior. Her life was a complete waste and this is the reason he wanted to go into the deep understanding of the factors or the persons responsible for this (Afejuku, Tony and Adekunle). On the way, he was found to pick up a soldier who lost his leg, while he comes across another air raid. Gladys went back to help the crippled soldier and after that she goes into the timberland where a near-miss knocks him senseless and he pushed back then. On his arrival he found the driver bleeding and sobbing. His car was in a condition of wreck. On his return he found the remains of the girl and the soldier and the he found the car in a wrecked up condition with full of smoke. The car was in an entangled position. He broke into tears on seeing that and he collapsed on the ground itself. The horrible death of Gladys, made the protagonist realize the potential for dignity within the heart and soul of even the most prosaic and artificial of human beings. This piece of work confirms the faith of the author in humanity and in Africa (Achebe, Chinua). The story suggests the struggle of the Africans against the foreign forces. It defines the role of a girl in the war and the only way open for a girl to survive in the war was the means of prostitution that was adopted even by Gladys. The author described how corruptive power could lead to destruction. Conclusion The story majorly concentrates on the struggle that was experienced by the people of Africa in order to make themselves free from the colonial rule of the British. This was not the end. They had to struggle through the issues of democracy, the evil things that were associated with the military rule, the civil war, the tribunal rivalries and the dictatorship. The author tried to preserve the age-old proverbs and the truths of the tribal heritage of Africa by highlighting them in his story. This essay is limited in knowing the exact background of Africa. The role of men were not highlighted in the story this is the reason that aspect could be brought out in the essay. There are different shades that are related to the story, that are included in the other stories of Achebe. The readers can read those and understand the background of the African wars. The readers will have the clear idea of the difference between tradition and modernity. This story had been judged from a feministic point of view, however the readers can experience more shades of the work of the author by reading his other texts. References Achebe, Chinua.The African Trilogy: Things Fall Apart; Arrow of God; No Longer at Ease. Penguin, 2017. Afejuku, Tony, and Adekunle Mamudu. "Disease And Social Dislocation In Chinua Achebes Girls At War."Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies3.1 (2016): 111-122. Aguilera, Ana Mara Leiva.Modernity and Tradition in Chinua Achebes Girls at War and Ngugi Wa Thiongos A Meeting in the Dark. GRIN Verlag, 2015. Gagiano, Annie. "Illuminating Africa: Commemorating and Reassessing the Work of Chinua Achebe (19302013)."Development and Change45.5 (2014): 1074-1092. Gale, Cengage Learning.A Study Guide for Chinua Achebe's" Civil Peace". Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016. Lynn, Thomas Jay. "Catastrophe, Aftermath, Amnesia: Chinua Achebes Civil Peace."Chinua Achebe and the Politics of Narration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2017. 127-142. Siddique, Rumana. "WO man of the People: Gender Roles, Nationhood, and National Identity in Chinua Achebes Anthills of the Savannah."A JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES8 (2017). Williams, Patrick. "West African Writing."Writing and Africa. Routledge, 2017. 31-45.