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Lama 1

Milan Lama

Ms. Chandler

English 1302.71501

30 October 2017

Explication of Theme in Chinua Achebe’s The Madman

The Madman by Chinua Achebe presents the challenging meanings of the message the author wants to portray. The dialect between the madman and Nwibe shows a confusing scene that is hard to follow. Nwibe is the key character in the story. Nwibe goes through a series of distinct phases of the society in the story. The author is trying to portray a message of a society that is destroyed by struggle and conflict.

It can be understood from the beginning of the story that the author is trying to investigate the topic of conflict. It is seen early in the story that Nwibe wants to visit the different neighborhood. He has Afo and Eke as two options but he chooses to go to Eke. He knows that Eke is a bigger market. Although it is a two day journey, Nwibe sets out for the journey. The truck drivers and many other people on his way tryto demotivate him but he stays strong and keeps moving forward. Similarly, as he is going towards the market some of the youth yell at him, but he disregards and marches forward. Although he focuses on reaching the market he doesn’t anticipate the event that happens to him on the way.

Nwibe decides to take a shower after working hard, but unfortunately the madman who have been watching him for a long time steals his clothes, and runs towards the market. Everybody in the market assume that Nwibe himself is psycho running after the madman. The madman was initially able to give him trouble with his three fellow friends in the Afo market. He struggles to be a decent individual in this new town and feels that by becoming the person he used to be from the other town he will be more appreciated by his neighbor. He thinks that being a wealthy and effective person will help him to accomplish his goal of having a better status. Nwibe was married to two wives, Udenkwo and Mgboye in his first society. However, his status suffered because of his fights with them, Nwibe chose to be more concerntrated on advancing inside the Eke. As the story continues there is a feeling of unacceptance; Nwibe is being disregarded by his wives, so it is possible that he won’t be accepted by his neighbors in Eke.

After he comes home from the market in Eke nobody seems to trust his story that his clothing has been ransacked by a madman and rather every character in the story thinks Nwibe is a mentally retarted person too. It turns to be a significant event when everyone’s vision of Nwibe changes remarkably. Never again is he seen as a good person rather he is dealt with as though he is psycho. It appears to the readers that because of the changing vision of everyone, Nwibe’s character is changing too. The vision of society towards Nwibe can depict that he is totally influenced. He starts to act passive, pulled back and starts to restrain from being social. It looks as if he is molding himself into the character that society sees of him now and looks completely normal because the whole society thinks that he is completely abnormal. The scene of complete fakeness occurs and he feels that he is not what he used to be anymore. The author is trying to depict the message that when a person is being ignored in the society his dominant character eventually fades away. Furthermore, the author is arguing that when a person is being ignored in the society should the dominant opinion of the society favor him or conflict with him. It is truly necessary to support a person when he is going through serious complications.

In spite of being cured by a specialist in psychology, people don’t seem to connect themselves with Nwibe in Eke. He also loses all the sources that he needed to become an official in the neighborhood because of a misconception that he is psycho. Although it is clear to the reader that Nwibe is not abnormal, specialists think that he doesn’t deserve enrollment in the official positions of the neighborhood thinking that he could cause something bad later. At this point Nwibe has lost the power to move forward in the society. Furthermore, he has lost any position that he held in the group. It completely changes his aim at the end. It is clear that no matter how hard he struggles it is impossible for him to join any positions of the society. The occurrence with the psycho has left Nwibe a broken man. Nwibe is now not only burdened by the incident but he now needs to fight with the society and the negative impression that he has in the town. Nwibe needs to move forward with his life attempting to return to the position that he once held or knew. In the meantime he has accepted the fact that experts in the town may never show signs of change in their opinion of him.

Achebe makes accurate use of the themes of dispute and commitment to picture a society which is destroyed by differences in perception and opinions. People tend to believe in the negative side of a person rather than his capabilities. The madman illustrates a distinctive meaning that could be mistaken as frantic and hard to recognize. Nwibe who is a simple man trying to come to a new society and become an established person is ravaged by only one incident. The personality of a person is also determined by the society despite the character that he already possess. People can be mistaken sometimes but one has to carefully analyze the person before judging the character of the person. Nevertheless, it shows the society with a unique perception of things, informs the reader about how perception can change the character of a person, and how to tackle this kind of situation.

Work Cited

Achebe, Chinua. “The Madman.” A World of Short Stories. 3rd ed. Ed. Yvonne Sisko. New York: Pearson, 2014. 224–230. Print.