A Study Of The Image Of Intellectuals In Chinua Achebe's Novels

Known as the "Father of Modern African Literature",Chinnua Achebe has always paid attention to the social reality of Nigeria under the influence of Western colonialism in his writing career for more than 60 years.As a native Nigerian intellectual,Achebe has a high sense of mission and responsibility.With a sincere,profound and realistic writing,he wrote about the social and historical process of the end of Nigeria’s traditional society,the period of British colonial rule and the country’s independence.Achebe’s works corresponding to the times not only show the social reality of the country and nation being increasingly influenced by Western colonial culture,but also highlight the life choices and destiny endings of local intellectuals in this special historical environment.All have their own unique insights and express them in their works in an artistic form.This article takes the representative image of intellectuals in Achebe’s novels as a starting point,combines Achebe’s own life history and Nigeria’s special historical period,and analyzes the image of intellectuals in Achebe’s novels through text reading.To explore the characteristics of Achebe’s attention to Nigerian intellectuals and the realistic care reflected in the image of intellectuals.Achebe has portrayed different images of intellectuals in his different works.The image of intellectuals in Achebe’s novels has formed three types of image groups in the process of Nigeria’s colonial history: the instructors who give traditions,the pioneers who first encountered power,and the rebels who are not afraid of power.The images of these three types of intellectuals reflect Achebe’s creative thoughts in different periods,and because of this,their destiny and ending are also different.Looking around,the reality of Nigeria is full of Western characteristics.Achebe focuses on a group of Nigerian intellectuals with traditional culture and modern Western higher education,taking them as examples to reflect the serious westernization of Nigeria and exploration of their own cultural outlet.Achebe expressed his concern for intellectuals in his different works.When he truthfully introduced the development process of Nigeria’s history to the public,he also described this group of intellectuals who promoted the development of history in an artistic way;the personal experiences of these new and old local intellectuals in the works are all related to the author and the people around him.They are very similar,suffering from "dual culture" in daily life.But Achebe did not praise one culture or criticize the other in his works,but kept a neutral attitude to tell the advantages and disadvantages of the two cultures,and the intellectuals who grew up under the baptism of these two cultures.