The African Trilogy - ‘writing back’ to Mister Johnson :: Essays Papers

The Afri corporation Trilogy - piece of music back to Mister JohnsonThe African Trilogy has been the subject of much small discussion since the publication of Things authorize Apart forty years ago. close to of this critical work has focused on the trilogy as a postcolonial work, writing back to the previous colonial works on Africa, such as those produced by Joseph Conrad and Joyce Cary. Achebe has himself alluded to these works as part of his motivation for becoming a writer, calling them appalling novels about Africa. More specifically he has sayI know around 51, 52, I was quite certain that I was going to try my hand at writing, and one of the things that determined me thinking was Joyce Carys novel, set in Nigeria, Mister Johnson, which was praised so much, and it was clear to me that it was a mostsuperficial indicate of - not only of the country - but even of the Nigerian character, and so I thought if this was famous, then perhaps someone ought to look at this from the inside ( Duerden Dennis, and Cosmo Pieterse, eds. African Writers Talking A Collection of Radio Interviews. capital of the United Kingdom Heinemann, 1972.)Looking at this from the inside, involved drawing on the mould of his aver Igbo society and its oral traditions. By reconstructing a picture and write up of Africa, and using Carys fiction as a point of departure, Achebe set out to challenge the colonialist depiction of Africans and their society.Although both Mister Johnson and The African Trilogy are concerned with similar issues, the ways in which these issues are confronted are strikingly different. In contrast to the simple, baby-like natives of Carys novel, Achebes characters are complex, multi-dimensional figures in their own right. While the African society of Mister Johnson is portrayed as uncivilized, simple, corrupt, the Igbo society of Things Fall Apart is shown as having grown from a long tradition of elaborated decision-making and a carefully system of religiou s, social and political beliefs. A disprover to the African world portrayed by Cary takes the form of an intelligent word picture of the character of Okonkwo and the society of Umuofia. As opposed to Cary, Achebe explores, in depth, the relationship between the individual and the social context in which his emotional and psychological institute has developed. In addition, he gives us in Okonkwo a protagonist we can identify with rather than laugh atPerhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man.