Achebe's "An image of Africa", "Girls at war" & "The Madman"

Three works By Chinua Achebe

In Achebe's three stories, "An image of Africa", "Girls at war" and "The madman", Achebe uses the tool of irony in a successful manner of expressing his views and opinions concerning African issues and events regarding society, politics and culture. I am a fan of ironic stories, always have been, ever since I learned that dramatic irony in plays such as Shakespeare was used to expose corruptions. As a middle schooler I knew the use of ironic satire was pure gold as long as the attempt was effective. In Achebe's case, he was very successful in gaining my interest and keeping it. He not only captures the reader's attention, but he captures their mind and challenges the reader to think about the tale in which he intertwines a lesson to be learned.

Achebe's view of African treatment, portrayal and politics are mentioned in his stories/ reader responses such as Conrad's "An image of Africa". Although "An image of Africa" was a dry, vocabulary-heavy response, Achebe's personal opinions were voiced concerning his disagreement and dislike of Conrad's representation of African people as "savage" and possessing a "bestiality" unlike the civil Europeans. Achebe does not use an allegory or a parable here but he does not have to. I have already been won over by his knowledge on the subject and his vast uses of textual support. I also agree with Achebe's world view as described in his stories "Girls at war" and "the madman". In these stories he reveals the ironies in life, not just in African lifestyles, but in worldly lives. He suggests that ironically good things happen for bad reasons and bad things happen for good reasons in everyday life, in a way he is saying that sometimes people get screwed over. An example of this mentality is present in "Girls at war" when Gladys suffers death after going back to save a helpless soldier, while Nwankwo is rewarded with life after abandoning the others. In "The madman" the clinically-crazy and naked man experieces the best outcome at the end of the tale, while the ideal African male in society is humiliated and deemed insane at the end of the story. After reading these stories in particular my agreement of Achebe's world views was strengthened.

Although I agree with Achebe, his audience was seemingly more of the African race, therefore I was unable to directly link the stories to my family or community. However I do believe that Achebe addresses matters that I personally care about such as  the solution in battling the stereotypes of Africans or other immigrants is to educate! I believe that education is a great way to solve almost any problem, because education and knowledge of current events are the tools that allow individuals to gain insight and better themselves as a citizen of any country. Despite my previous agreement, I do not believe that it is fair to say that dialects are solely a way "to downgrade" a person's language. Most people fail to see dialects as a tradition, as a reflection of a certain area in the world. For example, an Ohioan can make fun of a Kentuckian's dialect but some Kentuckians have grown up emersed in such "erroneous" forms of English making them speak differently not wrongly. Just because a person says "aint" does not mean that in their region of the country they are outcasted, but rather if they spoke proper English they would be looked at as a non-local. Perhaps my view of dialects is unconventional but I would not associate all varying forms of dialects with ignorance or uneducated people.

Overall, I enjoyed Achebe's works as a whole. My favorite of the three short stories was "Girls at war" due to the dramatic and detailed scenes and the not-so-happy ending therefore I enjoyed this story as entertainment and as a literary art form due to the irony-fillled message and lesson. "The madman" was a great work of art because I had to really question in depth what the symbols of the story meant and how Achebe was trying to inform his audience that craziness is not always clinical and being judgemental is not an effective way to read a person. "An image of Africa" was different than the two previously mentioned works because this piece was Achebe's response to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Due to the lack of vivid story telling and characters I was not as interested in this work, but I would say that Achebe is skilled in arguing a certain point with support to back up his findings and beliefs. After reading a selection of Achebe's writings I would recommend to myself and others who enjoy exploring new ways of thinking and analyzing to read more of Achebe's works.