I liked all of Achebe’s texts, but “The Madman” was the one that I enjoyed the most. In “The Madman”, I found it frustrating that the people of the community saw Nwibe as the “crazy” one. When, in all actuality, he was just angry. Another thing that frustrated me was how his entire community believed that he was insane, and would tell him that he was insane. When many people tell you the same thing repeatedly you start to think “well maybe I am crazy” and start to believe what you are being told.
When I was in high school I was severely bullied; all of the girls would call me “fat” or “ugly”. After a while of hearing this from them, I started to feel fat and ugly. When people tell you something over and over again, you are affected negatively. Whether you just get angry, or your self-esteem drops, you are affected.
I also enjoyed his story “Girls at War”. I thought that Gladys was a good person, even though she had to resort to prostitution. But if your only choices were to survive by becoming a prostitute, or die of starvation, wouldn’t you do the same? I did not necessarily like Nwankwo. I thought that he was selfish; as a government official, he should have helped feed the people instead of hoarding it for himself. I liked how Gladys went back for the wounded man. It was a very selfless act. I hope that in the future, this will change Nwankwo‘s attitude toward others; maybe he would look at her act of kindness and decide to share the food. Though, I was disappointed at the end of the story that the good people died and the bad man survived.
I think you make a good point about how destructive bullying can be. You can think about colonialism as a sort of mega-international bullying. You also make a good point about the problem of the Minster of Justice acting so unjustly.
ReplyDeleteIn your next posting, make these good story specific observations, and then take it to the next metaphorical step and see if you can make some wider generalizations based on the themes you identify.