The Ambivalent Protagonist in Achebe’s Arrow of God

Abstract

The paper is an attempt to study the character of Ezeulu, the protagonist of Chinua Achebe’s novel Arrow of God through the lens of Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of ‘ambivalence’. Ezeulu is the chief priest of the native Igbo religion and has a great influence on the clansmen. He is very proud of his position as “the ezeulu,” but at the same time admires the white man and his government. The coloniser attempts to use Ezeulu’s influence on the clan as a tool to further strengthen their fort. This attempt affects the personal as well as the private life of Ezeulu leading to his alienation.