Achebe's fourth novel contains a range of male and female characters who give a sense of the complex urban political life and the seemingly more anchored, but threatened life of the rural villages.
Odili, nicknamed "diligent" by his schoolmates, is the chief male character and the narrator. He is naive, sexist, snobbish, self-centered, and self-congratulatory, providing wonderful opportunities for demonstrating the author's humor and ironic wit. Still, he grows with the book into more of a man than even he perhaps knows.
At the outset, he puts his foot in his mouth on...
Source: Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction, ©2001 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
(The entire page is 1457 words.)
Want to read the whole thing?
Subscribe now to read the rest of this article. Plus, get access to:
- 30,000+ literature study guides
- Critical essays on more than 30,000 works of literature from Salem on Literature (exclusive to eNotes)
- An unparalleled literary criticism section. 40,000 full-length or excerpted essays.
- Content from leading academic publishers, all easily citable with our "Cite this page" button.
- 100% satisfaction guarantee READ MORE
