Psychological Realism in the Arrow of God --- Chinua Achebe

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Chinua Achebe’s, the third novel, Arrow of God centralizes around the struggle for power and authority between the African and Colonial traditions. Ezeulu, the Chief Priest of God Ulu is the protagonist who is in quest of wielding an absolute power throughout the novel. It is the study of psychology of power which incessantly switches directions, but can never be wholly acquired or seized. Achebe wavers between representing the good sides and bad sides of Christianity and Igbo religion reflecting his own ambivalence and split consciousness. To apply Freud’s theory to Achebe, we can say that Achebe had a wish to become English-like and to run away from everything that is native. On the other hand, a part of him rejects the white standards and clings to native ones. These two wishes overlap and integrate in his unconscious producing a creative writer whose ego-ideals are revealed in his writings wavering between the two cultures and their languages. His novel, Arrow of God criticizes and praises both his people and his colonizers simultaneously because of not being able to identify with either. Achebe’s own unconscious is reflected through the central character, Ezeulu who is also fascinated by the power of white man and his customs. The criticism of his native people never disturbed his mind. He goes against his obligations least concerning and considers his power as a device to accomplish his decisions. Towards the end of the novel, we witness him alienated both from his native culture and his white friends succumbing to tragedy. The Psychological Realism in the Arrow of God represents Freud’s three elements of personality - id, ego and superego controlling the basic needs, reality and morality. The mind is not the physical thing one can see through, but the effects of the actions of the mind on people’s lives are felt physically in the novel. Each character undergoes an unconscious thought process leading to anxiety and the eventual repression of thoughts.