To: _____

Date: ______

Subject: Arrow of God

I would like to discuss Arrow of God (1964) by Chinua Achebe, a political and heritage novel is set in Nigeria in the early twentieth century when colonization by British government agents and Christian missionaries was well underway. In this innovative two cultures battle their differences.

Achebe portrays the disturbing result an externally enforced power scheme (the British) has on an internally enforced power scheme (African custom and customs). Conflicts inside the Igbo humanity connected with repercussions from external attack outcome in catastrophe for the Igbo humanity which disintegrates from inside and reorients itself to Christianity. This reorientation will lead not only to the assimilation of Western standards and convictions, but furthermore to the eventual decrease of the Igbo heritage identity.

Arrow of God, Achebe's third innovative, is an elaborate and convoluted narrative. Ezeulu, the major feature, is the head cleric of Ulu, a god conceived by the persons nearly a 100 years before when the six villages of Umuaro joined to withstand the Abam slave raiders. As head cleric, Ezeulu is to blame for safeguarding the customs and rituals of the people. For demonstration, Ezeulu watches each month for the new moon. He consumes a sacred yam and beats the ogene to assess the starting of each new month. Only the head cleric can title the day for the feast of the Pumpkin Leaves or for the New Yam Feast, which escorts in the yam harvest.

Structurally, Arrow of God starts en medias res with a flashback to interpret a contradiction between Ezeulu and Nwaka five years before. Nwaka is a prosperous man and a follower of Ezidemili, the head cleric of the god, Idemili. The primary confrontation between the two men is over a land argument between Umuaro and the close by town of Okperi.

All six villages ...