“Chike’s School Days” – Moe
November 16, 2014
While reading Achebe’s “Chike’s School Days,” I found it shocking that Chike’s father, Amos, was heavily criticized for marrying an Osu. Even though Chike’s family behaves correspondingly to an upper class society, many neighbors condemned them mainly due to the fact that Amos is partially an Osu for marrying Sarah. An example that demonstrates how the family performs upper class rituals is when Chike is given three names when he is born: John, Chike, and Obaijulu. One of the names Chike is given, “John” represents a frequent name of a white man. This signifies the importance of a son in the family, which also symbolizes the patriarchal society in predominantly upper class societies. As a result, Amos and Sarah were very happy when their first and only son was born after five daughters. As the story progresses, there is a sense that Chike’s family and Chike, for the most part, is living with a double identity. Chike grows up with a “white” first name (John) and an African last name Obaijulu. Therefore, we feel as if Chike is trying to forgo his African heritage and adapt to the lifestyle of the upper class since an Osu is looked down upon. For instance, Achebe mentions, “His right hand could now reach across his head to his left ear, which proved that he was old enough to tackle the mysteries of the white man’s learning.” This suggests that Chike followed the path of the elite, not necessarily that of his previous ancestors. Thus, Chike has two uniquely different identities in his life.
Towards the end of Achebe’s text, as readers, we get a feeling that Chike completely made up his mind and put learning English as his first priority. Since Primary School, Chike loved learning and pronouncing long words. As a result, his true character developed and we begin to see Chike’s true state of being. In addition, I found the last paragraph of “Chike’s School Days” to be the most vital part of the whole text. In the story, Chike constantly reads his “New Method Reader” at home mainly because it relates to his life. The wizard travels to China from Africa to obtain a lamp and Chike tries to obtain knowledge in the English language. Thus, we can see a mixture of two different cultures. Finally, the last sentence of the whole story stated, “It was like a window through which he saw in the distance a strange, magical new world.” This line basically refers to the fact that Chike’s experience with new vocabulary demonstrates his connection with different cultures.
November 18th, 2014 at 12:58 pm
I wholeheartedly agree that Chike and his family are starting to assimilate to white culture. It strikes me how amazing it was that Chike’s mother, Sarah, was an Osu but now is a member of the upper class. Tradition is very strict, but somehow, Christianity has allowed Chike’s father to totally ignore said tradition. The pride in Chike’s family is very apparent, especially when Chike said, “We don’t eat heathen food” (828). This doesn’t sound someone who is in the lowest caste, like an Osu, but rather someone who is in royalty and the like. The introduction of Christianity, and moreover the “white man”, has really shaken tradition apart. The battle of trying to maintain the ways that the natives have cultivated and the temptation to join the culture of something that is bound to have a huge controlling power seems to tie in directly into the development of Chike. And like you said, Chike seems to place English over his native tounge, and at the end, it succinctly concluded, “And he was happy” (831).
November 25th, 2014 at 2:39 am
I agree with your thought on Chike’s three names. I definitely see how each name represents a different side of Chike. The fact that he becomes infatuated with the English language shows that he is definitely taking a different route than his ancestors’ traditions. It seems like his family wants him to diverge on a different path, seeing as how they act like upper-class people, and they teach him to behave as such.
December 11th, 2014 at 11:57 pm
I really like the two points you made that strongly reflect Chike’s mixed identities and hybrid cultures – his names and languages. It is very interesting how people like Chike who grow up and live in the post-colonism age are confronted by multiple cultures and the confusion of their own identities. Under this conflict language really became a crucial medium of cultures. And it’s also through the mastery of language that people explore their subjectivity and find their communities. As an international student who just started to speak English two and half year ago, I truly feel that this is the main barrier between people from different cultures, and that I can become a well adapted part of this society only after I fully master this communication tool.