A Horneyan Psychoanalysis Of The Protagonists In Things Fall Apart And Arrow Of God

Highly acclaimed as “the father of modern African literature”,Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe is best-known for his first novel Things Fall Apart(1958),which makes him one of the most popular writers in Africa.His third novel Arrow of God(1960)returns to the themes explored in his first novel,but it presents a more comprehensive depiction of the historical process and the nature of African tribal society.Examining these two novels from the perspective of Horneyan Psychoanalysis,this thesis is intended to excavate the socio-cultural factors accounting for the two protagonists’ neuroses,and elucidate the change of Achebe’s writing motive as well.In Things Fall Apart,the protagonist Okonkwo’s basic anxiety,stemming from the constraints of the Igbo tradition and his inherent fear of being like his father,becomes the dynamic center of his neurosis.Highly motivated by the tremendous anxiety imbedded in his personality,Okonkwo adopts the aggressive type of defensive strategy in the neurotic pursuit of power,wealth and prestige,but persistently shows an aversion to his other gentle side by the morbid inhibition of his true emotion,which eventuates in his inevitable suicide as the ultimate solution to his inner conflicts when confronted with the mercilessness of the colonial rule.Through the characterization of Okonkwo as the embodiment of the Igbo culture,Achebe makes an effortful attempt to launch a severe attack on the formidable colonialism inflicted upon the African tribal society on the one hand,and brings to light the weak side of the Igbo culture on the other hand.In marked contrast to Okonkwo,the protagonist Ezeulu in Arrow of God appears as a compliant-aggressive type of neurotic,whose attempts at the solution to the irreconcilable conflicts with the European colonists and with his tribesmen turn out to be futile,and finally give rise to his self-estrangement under the effect of externalization and the failure of his moral self-recognition.In other words,with the struggle between the Western culture and the African traditional culture internalized in his mind,Ezeulu suffers from the unbearable neurotic conflicts,undergoes the frustrating disillusionment of his “idealized image”,and then strives to remove the inner conflicts from consciousness under the effect of externalization,all of which eventuate in his ineluctable self-estrangement and the failure of his moral self-recognition.With the colonialist criticism pushed into the background,Achebe depicts Ezeulu’s tragic fate resulting from his over-emphasis on individualism,with the principal purpose of making a severe accusation against the indigenous administrative class’ s ethical deficiency,which highlights the far-reaching influence of one’s sense of responsibility and his political insight upon the national development of Nigeria.As a national elite imbued with a strong sense of patriotism,Achebe becomes more alert to the existing predicament of the modern Nigerian society with the publication of Arrow of God,which is believed to be an indicator of the change of his writing motive from the colonialist criticism to the quest for social responsibility.