Reconciliation - Grade: B- PDF

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essay on reconciliation of themes...

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Anissa Zibo Eisa Ulen Richardson Paper Two Adiche’s Reconciliation of Themes Found in Achebe In the work of 20th century African writers, reconciliation of particular themes across generations restores lost conversation. Whether women characters form sacred spaces to resist male dominance in a phallocentric society, or male characters resist the white supremacy of colonialism, reconciliation means reunion and often resolution. Chimamamnda Ngozi Adiche’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun  is a direct response to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart . These two narratives converse with each other by reconciling recurring themes of twin protagonists, slavery, hypermasculine male characters, and the pursuit of an ideal iteration of an Ibo identity. In Things Fall Apart, twins are the epitome of evil and were cast aside. They also signify how the veil between the physical and spiritual world is very thin. In Umuofia, the setting of the novel, twins are regarded as evil and when women give birth to twins, they are left in the Evil Forest to die. As if Adiche has heard the cries of those twins, she figuratively takes those twins and raises them on her own, allowing them to become Olanna and Kainene. As a direct response to the numerous sets of twins that were unsuccessful in life due to them dying in the evil forest, Adiche raises her twins to be successful women in Half of a Yellow Sun.  Though Kainene and Olanna are very different they are successful. In Half of a Yellow Sun, t wins demonstrate how women are able to become centered through this intimacy between themselves. This is how Adichie reconciles the theme of twin protagonists that are also found in Achebe’s novel. Kainene is described as androgynous yet cold. She does not live to satisfy the desires in people making

her the kindest character, much like the modern woman. Kainene is with Richard, who is a white man and they are not equal which is ironic in this society. She is greater than him. She is wealthy, smart, and Ibo. Olanna is also successful. She too, is educated and wealthy and is married to a black man, Odenigbo. In the beginning, Odenigbo seems to be her equal within this seemingly healthy relationship, but in the end she is the one who is stronger than him. She is beautiful and curvaceous, the opposite of Kainene, yet is raised by her parents to please others, as her parents often exploit her beauty for profit in their desire to gain power through business transactions. This causes Olanna to take the route in caring for herself and putting herself first. Kainene gains power through her unattractiveness and Olanna gains power through her position in higher education and her ability to liberate herself by prioritizing her desires there in prioritizing herself over Odenigbo. Slaves in both novels are not like the slavery we think of in the Americas. The African articulation of slavery is merely servitude and has been legitamized in these societies. This cannot compare to the brutalization and injustice that has been done to those stolen from their homes and placed in areas of the diaspora. Ugwu and the slave girl are servants, though one is openly referred to as a slave and the other being referred to as a houseboy. While slaves are of the first to be oppressed in the villages presented in Things Fall Apart , they are also first to join the missionaries who bring forth a wave of colonialism and cause the downfall of Okonkwo and the people that oppress them. Slavery in Achebe’s novel highlights the issue that when people are oppressed it opens the doors for others to meddle with that society. Okonkwo’s downfall is due to colonialism preventing him from being his true Ibo self. Ugwu, one of our three protagonists is first given to Odenigbo uneducated, and unable to understand the modernity of

Odenigbo’s house. The slave in this narrative ends up becoming the author of the book and has the ability to remember and tell, one of the most important things to have in telling the story of living through the Nigerian civil war. Ugwu being the author of the book is important because we don’t expect it. We expect the story to continue, yet are hit with this t urn of events. The slave in Achebe’s novel is avenged by Adiche and reconciles the very notion of what it means to be a slave in the traditional Ibo societies presented in these books. In Things Fall Apart, t he slave has no autonomy of her body and is forced to die with the first wife. Similarly, Ugwu has no control of his own autonomy while also taking anothers autonomy when he is forced to participate in the gang rape during his time as a child soldier. His youth and innocence is forced to die within this instance. Adiche is able to reconcile this theme of slavery by avenging the slave that was killed in Achebe’s novel to become an educated, great writer that is Ugwu. Hypermasculinity presents itself as the ideal identity of these narratives for male characters and has become the norm in a society where female characters are supposed to follow blindly. Where there is unhealthy male dominance, there is female oppression. As a part of being hypermasculine, characters like Okonkwo are able to participate in actions such as wife beating due to him being a misogynist. Hypermasculinity and the idea of being the most masculine are both physiological motivators in the misogyny that is presented in these novels.Odenigbo becomes a character much like Okonkwo after he is raped and at the same time rapes Amala. Amala has a baby by Okonkwo and this relationship between him, her and Olanna become a polygamous relationship where Olanna takes the position as first wife. Just like in Okonkwo’s narrative, a man’s wealth is measured by the number of wives he has, Odenigbo is now like the wealthy Ibo men in Okonkwo’s tale. This is one reason why in Half of A Yellow Sun A  unty Ifeka

tells Olanna that Odenigbo did what men do, so that she should forgive him. When there is a lack of hypermasculinity, there is emasculation. When male charcaters feel emasculated, this makes them to cause great harm upon women such as performing sexual assault and rape to overcompensate for their powerlessness in establishing male dominance that is required of them in a phallocentric culture. One example of an emasculated male characteris Richard, a white, British man living in Nigeria. Richard so desperately wants to be Ibo, but realizes during the Biafran war that he may only be Biafran but never Nigerian. Even when Richard finds himself with an Ibo woman, Kainene, he is unable to perform due to his insecurities. He knows that Kainene is more powerful, smarter and more cunning than he is. As he is not her equal, this causes the deeply felt sentiment towards Madu. Major Madu served in the Nigerian army first and later in the Biafran army. He and Richard's relationship is strained due to the uncertainty of Madu's role in Kainene's life. It is also strained due to Richards jealousy towards madu, with him being taller than he is, more powerful and physically stronger. Madu is the ideal bo man, something that Richard is not. Madu is someone who is equal to Kainene aside from Olanna. The ideal iteration of Ibo identity is an important issue and is presented in both narratives. Achebe is able to distinguish between many types of Ibo communities and their vast differences with regards to how they practice local religions, or even small things like which men are allowed to marry a certain village girl. In Adichie's open dialogue with Achebe she is able to explore the Ibo identity without romanticizing any part of what it means to be Ibo. The identity that is spoken of in both Half of A Yellow Sun a nd Things Fall Apart i s the pre-colonial Ibo identity. The drugging and rape of Odenigbo enstills his Ibo identity. He now has a senior wife and junior wife consistent with how successful Ibo men were viewed in these narratives. His

very own mother takes advantage and drags him back to pre-colonial with Igbo identity which is consistent with Okonkwo. Both men go down a path that eventually leads them to become weaker. In Okonkwo’s case, he destroys himself internally and externally and eventually commits suice. In Odenigbo’s case he destroys himself by becoming an alcoholic who is soon despised by his wife. Even though African characters such as these two men struggle with their identity, white characters such as Richard struggle with the Ibo identity too. Characters like Odenigbo and Madu who are educated and African show Richard that he is not superior. Due to his fiancee Kainene being an Ibo woman, Richard feels that he needs to elevate his status and for that to be a success, he needs to be Ibo. In this case Richard is wrong. Richards iteration of an ideal Ibo identity is that of a single story. He only knows one way of being Ibo and it is based on

 chebe prevents us from forming a singular story about his environment. In Things Fall Apart, A the Ibo people by showcasing different identities within these communities. There is no singular Ibo identity. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Chinua Achebe are writers that both focus on many of the same themes such as slavery, hypermasculine male charcaters, twin protagonists and the ideal iteration of an Ibo identity. Adichie’s reconciliation of themes through a conversation with Achebe helps resolve the issues that themes like hypermasculation bring. We see women characters centering themselves In doing this Adichie allows readers to spot how different themes appear in different Ibo societies and how narratives of these different characters are similar and different in each their own ways....