Chinua Achebe

                                                    Achebe Reader Response

             Chinua Achebe’s stories were very interesting. His thoughts on culture and heritage were most prominent in his stories. Achebe also believes one should be tolerant of everything except intolerance.

                In Achebe’s story “Girls at War” irony was present. The story is ironic because Nwankwo was the minister of Justice and yet he hoarded food and didn’t help anyone except who decided should be helped. He was also married but he was sleeping with a prostitute. At the end he doesn’t even want to help the one legged soldier. He was a bad unjust person yet he was the minister of Justice. Then, there is a prostitute named Gladys who evolves during the story. First, Gladys had signed up for the militia. She was rejected so she joined the red cross. She had to search cars even the minister of Justice’s car (he got mad at that). Then she became a prostitute. She was dressed in expensive prostitute clothing .She was now a business women and she had protectors. She had to sell her body to survive. Finally, at the end she goes back to be a revolutionary and she abandons the “I need to look out for just me” idea. She tries to save the one legged soldier, but they both die. This whole story is Ironic because even though Gladys did some questionable things but was still a good person. She does die, but she dies to try to save someone else. This symbolized the dying of ethics. The Minister of Justice lived even though he is the bad person which symbolized the corruption that is still happening.

 In my everyday life I do see corruption. There is corruption everywhere, but there are a lot of ethical people amidst it all. I of course don’t live in a war torn totally corrupt country, but I see it on t.v. all the time. I do see struggles of race and racism which Achebe talks about in is other short story “Image of Africa”.  I do think it’s important to learn about what Achebe writes about because it is happening. We sometimes ignore the fact that there is corruption and a struggle in Africa.  My views on the world have changed a lot. I knew that there was a lot of problems in Africa but nothing to this extent. I really believe knowing about the world is important.  Achebe’s writing really illustrates the problems of the world and that really interests me.

The stories were really interesting and entertaining.  I really enjoyed them. I think his views are very interesting and they make for good stories. I would recommend these stories to anyone who is interested in African struggles and history.