Achebe

Chinua Achebe, author of “The Madman”, “An Image of Africa“, and “Girls at War” has summed up the colonization that goes and went on in Africa. In his short story “The Madman”, he describes how society can make one believe that he or her is or isn’t something. Like Nwibe, I was made out to seem crazy. I was in high school at the time and a kid by the name of Cashmier, was known as the “crazy emo” of the school. After gym, I noticed that my brand new shoes were missing. Highly infuriated, I knew I couldn’t walk around the school with holes in my socks, so I was forced to wear these spiky boots. Everyone looked at me different, some actually disowned our friendship. People were calling me an emo all day because I was not what they expected me to be. After a while, I started to believe them. Although I wasn’t a crazy emo, with me walking down the hallway with silvery spiked boots , said otherwise. The way I was presented to society made it believable. This was essentially the message Achebe stated in this story.

I agreed with everything Achebe was wrote about in his stories. In the short story “An Image of Africa”, he illustrates how the America and Europe view Africa in a way in which it shouldn’t. I feel it is wrong to only judge Africa by what is presented on television. Americas often think of Africa as a place of starving children, poverty everywhere, and AIDS, which makes it hard to stem away from the negative stereotypes. I’m actually guilty of these acts of stereotyping and after reading this story, my attitude changed. As stated by Achebe, “For reasons which can certainly use close psychological inquiry, the West seems to suffer deep anxieties about the precariousness of its civilation and to have a need for constant reassurance by comparing itself to Africa”. This quote shows how upset the author is about the preconceived notions about Africa. I believe all people should be treated the same and never be judged in any way. This text strengthened my belief in support for all. According to Achebe, “ Africa is to Europe as the picture is to Dorian Gray, a carrier onto whom the master unloads his physical and moral deformities so that he may go forward, erect and immaculate. Constantly, Africa is something to be avoided just as the picture has to be hidden away to safeguard the man’s jeopardous integrity”. This simply shows how people in Africa are upset with the tainted impression of Africa. I personally love how Achebe used the analogy of Dorian Gray because I fell the same way about Haiti.

Overall I absolutely loved the readings of this author. His aggressive style of writings made it informative and enjoyable. These short stories were meant to artistically in inform the reader about the African’s people view of things.