Fiction, Emotion, and Narration in Selected Novels of Chinua Achebe
Chapter One
Aim/Objectives of Study
The aim of this research is to examine emotion in the narration of Achebe’s There was a Country and Anthills of the Savannah. The objective that will strengthen this study is to demonstrate that emotions affect narration. The study will discuss Achebe’s emotion in the narration of the two texts because as a member of society, he is also affected by the issues he tries to portray in his story telling. To get the readers to see things from his point of view, Achebe’s emotive tone that underlies his narration will be critically discussed.
The study will also try to determine the effect of emotion in the narration of the texts. When a writer becomes too emotional in his/her narrative, the audience may perceive a lack of objectivism in the narration and this may attract criticism for the author. This study will examine how effective emotion helps in the interpretation of the two texts.
Also, another objective of this research is to determine the narrative style of the two texts and discuss the emotive effects of such a style. The effective development of a particular narrative style may enhance the critical perception of the readers in becoming in tuned to the author’s viewpoint. On the other hand, a not well developed narrative style may defeat the aim of the author and negatively influence readers’ perception.
The study will also evaluate the thematic concerns of the two texts and how emotion affects the development and portrayal of the themes. When the author becomes too emotional in his character and thematic presentation (narration), the readers may deduce subjective attempts by the author to report societal issues as he/she perceives them rather than how they really appear.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Psycho-Analysis and Literary Appreciation
This section begins by giving relevant quotes which relate the idea of emotions to literary narrations as fictional works are a product of the author’s emotional reactions to negative societal issues.
But what terrified me most –it was the seed of Marie’s blindness in Black Sunlight –was the sight of blind parents being led around by their five year old little girl –they had nowhere to stay –sometimes they slept in the stadium, sometimes at the railway station –(Dambudzo Marechera, 1983).
The above epigram taken from “An Interview with Self’’ (1983) typifies how fictional narration comes out of emotion. In this instance, Marechera portrays the humiliating scene in former Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) whereby parents and their children were made homeless in their home land by the brutal regime of Ian Smith. Marechera speaks on how emotion arising from the scene becomes part of his novel, Black Sunlight in which dejection that is known to be abnormal is a normal condition. It is the so-called “normal condition” that drove Marechera to write about the degrading situation in the Zimbabwean society of his day. He also paints a bizarre picture of Zimbabwe in The House of Hunger (1978): “I got my things and left…I couldn’t have stayed on in that House of Hunger where every morsel of sanity was snatched from you the way some kinds of birds snatch food from the very mouths of babes” (11).The driving force behind the narrative is the intolerable situation in the country that has made the narrator to perceive the homeland as a ‘House of Hunger’. As the narrator paints the picture of dreamlike homeland, “what calls for elucidation are not the artistic and literary works themselves, but rather the psychopathology and biography of the artist, the writer or fictional characters (Freud, npn.)
The place of Psychopathology, as noted by Freud above, explains the psychological conditions that underlie character behaviour, and the mental phenomena for the writer’s reactions to societal events which are recreated in the literary corpus. In this regard, the psychological reaction to societal happenings is manifested in the fictional narration which underlies the writer’s emotional response to real life events that are also expressed in a story’s character portrayals.
Psychopathology, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica is “the scientific study of mental disorder, including efforts to understand their genetic, biological, psychological, and social causality; effective classification schemes (Nosology); course across all stages of developmental psychology; manifestations; and therapy. The term may also refer to the manifestation of behaviors that indicate the presence of a mental disorder.” (1225)
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CHAPTER THREE
ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH AND EMOTION
‘‘Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures’’
The above quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson captures the idea that there are realities embedded in Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, a novel which unravels the socio-political issues that bedeviled post-colonial Nigeria. Achebe feels aggrieved by the continual situation of military intervention in politics which has inhibited the growth and development of the country. The irritating situation is made worst by the fact that the men in khaki always claim to be the ‘saviour’ that society craves so as to escape from the political mismanagement and megalomania of the elite who took over power from the colonial masters. The real identity of the military leaders is revealed as soon as they take over power using the force of the gun. Achebe’s frustrations with the military governments are revealed in his literary renditions which Anthills of the Savannah clearly depicts.
CHAPTER FOUR
EMOTION AND NARRATION IN THERE WAS A COUNTRY
There was a Country and Emotion
Much debates and controversies surround the Nigerian civil war. The most recent could be described as an intellectual war and ethnocentrism. These were characteristics of the responses and reactions to Chinua Achebe’s There was a Country which the author has titled the ‘personal history of Biafra’. This narration is Achebe’s commitment to documenting the Nigerian civil war story from an Igbo or Biafran perspective. This work is very important to Achebe and the Igbo nation because he has been criticized in the past by scholars for capturing the civil war saga in very small measures like the title story in his short story collection, Girls at War and Other Stories. Achebe tries to ‘redeem his good name’ in the eyes of the Biafran nation by using this narrative, which could be viewed as a memoir, to tell the story of a people that have been unjustly treated, misunderstood and on the verge of being annihilated by a country that preaches unity and oneness, Nigeria. Commenting on the need for There was a Country in the introductory chapter of the book, Achebe tells us that;
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
A Machiavellian principle states “Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be – are ruined” (Niccollo Machiavelli). Accordingly, Nigeria emerged from the civil war as one nation on paper but with several ethnic loyalists, who believed in ethnic propaganda that has remained a huge hindrance to nation
building. Our nationalist became ethnocentric and the political elite propagandist. The post-independence did not as St. Jorre has rightly identified in his story of the Nigeria Civil war, the west and the international community is bereft of a policy equitable in termination of war see the challenges of the nation as it were, but as they wished it should be explained.
Sequel to this, successive government had plunged the nation into one economic, political and religious crisis. The dream of a Nigeria assured of political stability for socio-economic development had become a forlorn hope. An apparent repetition of the pre-civil war ethno-political crisis has engulfed the nation in a more draconian mode – Boko Haram, backed by terrorist agents from the Arab world. The only way Nigerian politicians address the pertinent issues like: corruption, falling standard of education, destructions of lives and property and above all failed institutions, is to blame or condemn those in power at all levels for administrative ineptitude. Rather than advance pragmatic strategies that could address these predicaments, they have resorted to political alliances ahead of 2019 just as the past politicians did. Their only visible practical solution is, therefore, power grab. So, it is evident that most post war crises and the Boko Haram menace are regenerated by ethnicity and the failure of our political elite to learn from the civil war experiences and build a healthy nation.
Obviously, the consequences of ‘ethnic nationalism and the blame game’ on nationhood in Nigeria today are adverse. The further disintegration of the diverse ethnic nationals is being advance by the quest to alter our history with a view to containing the distasteful past by some sycophantic parochial members of their ethnic groups. When essentially, we should draw lessons from what had happened in our history, avert its repetition and go on without guilt or timidity to achieve our common destiny, national integration and national development. In There was a Country, Achebe has demonstrated the danger in using the ‘single story approach’ to write history, due to its excessive ethnocentrism, which when the facts are subjected to historical criticism they become ahistorical or naked opinions.
Therefore, collective national interest and nationalism can be attainable if the populaces are unbounded from the apron of perceptions. Nigerians should be provided effective and adequate post traumatic rehabilitation in the event of civil strife so as to re-shape their social attitude. Only then could nationalism devoid of religious affinity or ethnic loyalty savage the nation from the epidemic of conflicts and corruption which are inhibitions to development and national integration.
Achebe’s fiction is a response to life’s experiences in postcolonial Nigeria. Thus, the “truth” that Achebe’s fiction refracts is a social experience located within an identifiable, real social space. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the issues that Achebe’s fiction addresses are equally a continuation of similar matters by other fiction on Nigerian experience. There is therefore a relational nexus between Achebe’s postcolonial fiction and novels in the same mould; they spawn a discursive confluence.
Anthills of the Savannah, therefore, is replete with themes articulated by other writers on the same issues, which are militarism and power as well as issues which are Achebe’s major concerns in his earlier works. This makes a case for “truthful” refraction of events in Nigeria that is fictionalised as Kangan. It is within these parameters that the novel can be read as a typical postcolonial novel about Nigeria’s militarised postcolony.
In a bid to reconstruct society, Achebe has touched on the issue of military dictatorship as one of the banes of our socio-political development. The author recommends that the military has no business in running the affairs of a nation but should stick to their roles of maintaining the territorial integrity of the state. The study reveals that military dictatorship is a serious problem in politicking that must be discouraged; as such, leaders who have been empowered by the people must act within the ambit of the law for the collective will of the people to be achieved.
Achebe’s commitment to depict the various socio-political happenings in his society is a clear testament of his emotional connections to his country and people which he strongly articulate his role and the role of any writer in a nation state like Nigeria. He feels angered by the constant military interventions which he sees as a hindrance to democratic progress and the rule of law. Worst still is the fact that the military makes the people to see them as plausible alternatives to the problems caused by civilian governments, and they take power by force only to act in accord with the civilian governments. To Achebe, the men in khaki are worse off than their civilian counterparts because they do more harm to the country than good.
The portrayals of the characters of Sam, Chris and Ikem show Achebe’s emotional stance as to the place of the military in the country. He is clearly saying that the military has no business being in politics; they should rather perform their task of maintaining the territorial integrity of the country and leave the business of leadership to politically elected persons.
This study has discussed three major issues of Military Dictatorship and Political Oppression, Press Censorship and the Use and Abuse of the Press, and Friendship and Betrayal as the bane of the country’s development. The study reveals that military dictatorship is one of the obstacles of our socio-political development; as such, leaders who have been empowered by the people must act within the ambit of the law for the collective will of the people to be achieved.
These are some of the issues that culminated in the Nigerian civil war which Achebe depicts in There was a Country. By extension, if these issues that are still prevalent in our polity today and have taking different shapes and forms are not well treated, the country may be headed for another civil war strife which may spell doom for the “Giant of Africa”.
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