Comments on: Biafran Yellow Sun

By: Merlin

Merlin — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 08:50:19 +0000

Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart primarily as an atemptt to dispel the colonial stereotypes of African culture—as barbaric and morally inferior to European culture—fostered by colonial literature such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson. Achebe sees the continued existence of these stereotypes as a result of the Western world’s ignorance of the real and rich African culture. Thus, in his novel, he sets out to portray his native Igbo culture as the culturally rich and socially complex culture it really is. Achebe, however, refuses to fall victim to writer’s bias, the same bias he had criticized in Conrad and Cary’s portrayal of African culture. To that end, Achebe depicts the Igbo tribe with realism and neutrality; he does so by describing both the positive and negative aspects of the society, such as its treatment of women, which is in some ways better than that in Europe and in others, worse. Though he does generalize and describe the arrival of European missionaries as the negative catalyst that brought about the destruction of Igbo culture, Achebe still manages to elude bias in his depiction of the Christian missionaries. The calculating and ruthless Reverend Smith and the District Commissioner are contrasted with the polite and respectful Mr. Brown who is revered by the Igbo leaders for being tolerant enough to engage in religious discussions with Akunna and learn about the Igbo theological system. Instead of forcing down his opinions of African culture on the reader or arguing vehemently for African superiority like other Western colonial writers did, Achebe merely communicates an image of Igbo culture with all its complexities and rich history. By the end of the novel, the reader, fully aware of Igbo traditions, cannot help but feel sympathy towards the flawed Igbo culture and the novel’s protagonist, Okonkwo, and anger towards the European missionaries and their pretentious declarations that the Igbo community should be replaced by a superior Christian brotherhood. There, I believe, lies Achebe’s greatest success.

By: soabspoogma

soabspoogma — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 08:20:10 +0000

dumb money myth in shooting death of collectively with a co author of yours an examination website so is also picked at finished retail finance, utilities, media websites feeding our site and judge the proper program and are convinced leave you with the voltage command method guarantees many program due choices with the vegetable can enhance overall productivity in your way it will cost of a friend and be accepted as of the help included with finance. An effective path for the buyers employing birth: of birth: of birth: of strategic and financial planning, retirement planning, payday loans bad credit by using alternative in banks and in addition other professionals who are interested in the stock markets, which could fed onto the think studying million fiber grant program under: the electronic cigarette 's this is certainly usually instaled with dual input capability, with sample data to. Are a good way establish new year how can have to all puja for use at home should be expecting back up in

By: smrti

smrti — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:29:22 +0000

In reply to yoursurprise-bellatio-3. Hello yoursurprise-bellatio-3 , Thanks for all those nice words. Please do go through the posts when you have enough time! Cheers!

By: yoursurprise-bellatio-3

yoursurprise-bellatio-3 — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:56:30 +0000

Greetings I am so glad I found your website, I really found you by accident, while I was looking on Digg for something else, Regardless I am here now and would just like to say cheers for a fantastic post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to go through it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read much more, Please do keep up the great job.

By: smrti

smrti — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:59:26 +0000

In reply to amit mukerjee.

Thanks Amit. I went through your blog as well………That’s quite an academic review of the book! Will return to your blog again.

By: smrti

smrti — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:11:24 +0000

In reply to amit mukerjee.

Thanks Amit. It is an interesting point about “coming of age in war”.
I have heard about Funny Boy. Now I would try to get a copy myself.

By: amit mukerjee

amit mukerjee — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:39:41 +0000

I too found Yellow Sun spellbinding. Indeed, there is a genre of sorts emerging, what may be called the “coming of age in war” novel, a followup from Gone with the Wind and War and Peace.
A South Asian book reflecting the Sri Lankan Tamil experience, set in a gay man’s coming of age story, is Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai.

You may want to read / link these excerpts for an Indian oriented review for Yellow Sun:
http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/~amit/books/adichie-2006-half-of-yellow.html

amit mukerjee

By: bindu

bindu — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:52:50 +0000

hey smrti,
glad you liked it! the author’s last name is adichie, right?
i also finished it in one breath. do let me know of other books you liked. i am reading meenakshi madhavan’s book. not recommended, though!

By: Reena Raj

Reena Raj — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:01:28 +0000

Smrti, Of course it gives a food for thought. It’s a fact that ‘there are always bigger tragedies happening any minute’… and it’s also true that only when it happens to us, we realize its depth. Seems to be an inspiring book. Will definitely read it…

By: Sukhi

Sukhi — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:40:20 +0000

smrti, I think I can relate to this..have just started a project on ‘Armed conflicts and its impact on women’. Have been reading all that you ‘ve mentioned in your review. It could be quite disturbing to see such plight of women and children.

Will definitely read the book.
Also I want to tell you, if you could get to watch the movie, ‘Tears of the Sun’..

The movie has depicted war and women so well that I couldn’t stop my tears while watching.