In Chinua Achebe’s literature, Chike’s School Days, there is a strong emphasis on the cultural difference between two different civilizations. In the context, two civilizations are Baptism and white’s Christianity civilization.
First, the author introduced Chike’s names, John, Chike and Obiajulu showing that people who believe in Baptism have three names consisting of English and African names. The reason why people would give a kid three name might be for different representation. John is simply an English name but, in the text, English seems to be very powerful that it changed many aspects of Chike’s family. Or an English name simply will give one higher level of power like when Chike refused neighbor’s yam arrogantly. It is clear that “being white” will give one some sort of superiority.” And for the name, Obiajulu, meaning “the mind at last is at rest, is a very symbolic name for a kid that represents the kid. It is very interesting on that one could know something about another by simply reading his/her name. But meanwhile, this juxtaposition of English and African names contrast the fact that English name is often meaningless beside it is being an English name. It is really sad when comparing to African’s name whereas each name is designed specifically to that person’s fact while English name was simply an English name. In the beginning of the story, name plays a big role on differentiating English and African cultures.
As previously mentioned, the title of “English” or “being English” or “living like English” seems to give a person a superiority over others even though the one may not is as noble as real English. This idea could be evidenced by the example when Chike refused neighbor’s yam with rude languages. Because Chike is brought up under “white education,” the way he acts, in the story, embodies whites’ behaviors. Despite the fact that Chike’s mother is lowest class person, Chike did not feel inferior to it but instead he felt proud or he was taught to be proud of being educated in “white way.” However, it is a very ironic that people in white education dress nice uniforms of white shirt and brown khaki shorts, but they are totally not as polite and civilized as those who did not wear or study in “white” education. Achebe shows that the often “white” of everything is always the best but it is not true. “White” is just a very superficial way to describe someone but “white” does not really give any advantage to anything. This shows that how people in Africa have view white as in their country.
Clearly, Achebe has demonstrated different values from two different cultures despite the fact that this text is very short. It is always very surprising that people label one culture superior than the other due to the race instead of the true values the culture possesses.