The same reproach is sensed in the Vengeful Creditor, where the story shows that the end of colonialism does not necessarily mean the end of foreign rule and influence. Mrs. Eminike’s opinion regarding the ostentatious spending habits of the foreigners “to [entice] the few remaining servants away from Africans” (Achebe, 56) demonstrates the presence of the foreigners despite Nigeria having gained its independence. Her reproach is bluntly mentioned, “…she hated the Americans and the embassies (but particularly the Americans)” (Achebe, 56). A more subtle form of reproach is hinted towards free education - a foreign policy – and its affects on the traditional class divide of Nigeria. In developing countries like Nigeria where a symbiotic system exists, whereby the poor live off the rich and the rich mutually benefit from the poor - free education causes much disturbance to this balance. Free education is seen as a free ride or as “an escape from the drabness and arduous demands of home” (Achebe, 58-59) and not as an opportunity whereby the poor can improve their lifestyles. Once again Achebe entails the negative consequences of neo-colonialism on the mental attitudes of lower class Africans and how it aids to displace their traditional roles. The message I presume Achebe wishes pass to his African audience is how demeaning their attitudes are towards development; if it they were to pursue education it should be for their betterment and not seen as a vehicle to escape from their traditional positions in society.
Even though Achebe’s main intention is to write for African’s through conveying culturally specific messages there are certain issues raised in his stories that are universally appealing. In Dead Man’s Path, Michael Obi could represent the European educated class and his stubbornness towards accepting the paths significance could represent his intolerance towards cultural beliefs, an issue that we are bombarded with in our daily live. The consequences of cultural intolerance whether it is due to religion, colour, race or beliefs are devastating, as with the Israeli-Palestine conflict, Kashmiri tension, black racism in Chicago and the recent oppression of Muslims in America. Man’s inability to accept what is different leads inevitably to violence and this is precisely what has occurred in all the above situations as with Michael Obi "with the hedges torn up not just near the path but right round the school, the flowers trampled to death and one of the school buildings pulled down." (Achebe, 74).
In Marriage is a Private Affair, a tension that exists in all societies is beautifully portrayed - the tension of rural versus urban. Nnaemeka has traditional parents but lives in metropolitan Lagos and is caught in the midst of a soap opera cliché of choosing between his father’s chosen suitor and his personal love. Having opted for the latter the story very clearly contrasts the conflicting views of the rural and the urban on marital issues, which makes it very entertaining and interesting to read. For instance the characteristics of a wife differed according to the father – the rural – and Nnaemeka the modern son. The father emphasized the girl’s tribe, familial background, religious piety and civics skills, which the son did not necessarily view as important. Even through Nnaemeka unionized on certain traits with his father he did not believe in the notion of arranged marriage but was well aware of the consequences of defying the notion, “They are most unhappy if the engagement is not arranged by them” (Achebe, 23). Furthermore, the villagers attribute Nnaemeka’s behaviour to a sickness and not as a cultural difference – a view that would generally be taken by an urban inhabitant. Even prejudice towards Nene - Nnaemeka’s wife – vastly differed from the Ibion village to the capital and the criteria on which it was broken down also contrasted tremendously. Nnaemeka’s father kept his grudge towards Nene for eight years and he “only felt the resolution he had built up over so many years” (Achebe, 29) the day he learnt about his two grandsons. I believe the old man’s deterrence towards Nene faded not only because he gained the satisfaction that his pedigree will persist but also the fact his grandchildren were male, which are both very traditional values that are esteemed in all rural societies from Tanta in Egypt, to Texas in America to the villages of Eastern Europe. In the capital, Lagos on the other hand it how well Nene balanced her work and household duties and still "kept her home much better than most of [the other housewives]" (Achebe, 28).
In Taha Hussein’s depiction of his own upbringing in An Egyptian Childhood, the sounds and smells of rural Egypt are portrayed, whereby Hussein’s early education in a small village in Upper Egypt and how he comes to terms with his blindness in a society where Islamic values have a strong foothold are portrayed in the most unconventional manner. By unconventional I mean the Islamic values have not been preserved as idealistic, this is effectively done by the author exposing his humanistic shortcomings in himself towards such values that make them in turn seem more pragmatic. I believe this is the message Hussein wants to convey to societies where inhabitants are very strongly guided by a set of values as in Islamic communities; that these values are not there to deter one from their individual dreams and goals but are a set of guidelines that provide a domain in which the inhabitants of the society can reside in with harmony.
Hussein’s blindness helps place his shortcomings in a context that otherwise would have been seen as offensive to Islam. For instance, for his inability to eat properly at the dinner table Hussein resorted to eating in isolation; if he had not been handicapped the reader would feel reproach for Islamic values as being very stringent, especially the Western reader who would view it as an “ineluctable evil, established by custom[s] and meeting the desire of people” (Hussein, 56). However placing it in the context of Hussein’s handicap and young age the reader feels sympathy wherever Hussein speaks about his schoolmaster and Arif in an “abominable fashion,” or thinks his parents have wronged him by “falsehood, trickery or deception” (Hussein, 26). Having dealt with his blindness and young age in the context of Islam in such a delicate manner that has been so wrongly portrayed in the Western media, Hussein brings softness and humanity to a religion that is otherwise thought to be a faith of fundamentalism. "His greatest terror of all was of persons who, in his imagination, stood in the doorway of the room and blocked it…Now he firmly believed that he had no protection from all these terrifying apparitions and horrible noises unless he wrapped himself up inside the coverlet from head to toe, without leaving any hole or crack between himself and the outer air" (Hussein, 11). Innocent beliefs such as these that can be the derivation of almost any child are amusing to a certain extent and help break the Western stereotype of Islam being a religion of stringent methodological thought that give rise to terrorists.
Speaking of methodologies, Hussein’s undeniable advocacy for modernity and his opinion of traditional methods of teaching is also portrayed in An Egyptian Childhood. Having reached the post of Minister of Education his resentment towards the educational system is visible in the manner he describes his own ordeal in trying to learn the Quran and furthermore how he sarcastically mocks his Master “You will go to the cobbler who lives near by and say to him, “Our Master says that this shoe needs a patch on the right side. Look, do you see? Here where I put my finger.” The cobbler will reply, “Yes I will patch it.” Then you will say to him, “Our Master says that you must choose a strong, coarse, new piece of leather and that you must put it on neatly so that it is invisible or nearly so.” He will reply, “Yes I will do that.” Then you will say to him, “Our Master says that he is an old customer of yours, so please take that into account,” and whatever he says to you don’t agree to pay more than a piastre” (Hussein, 21-22). You can sense the boy repeating the same words over and over again on his way to the cobbler and spilling it out in relief upon his arrival. And God forbid if the conversation does not follow the Master’s instructions precisely because the boy will be lost and be unable to perform the instructed task. Moreover, he would be terrified to return to his Master in fear of being publicly humiliated for his dismal failure. The implication is clear and the analogy is brilliantly used to ridicule the Egyptian educational system and the method of mugging and vomiting the material onto examination papers that is so prevalent in Egypt. His belief for a liberal educational system whereby theories are not only mugged but also applied, where students are encouraged to give conflicting opinions and critique existing works is supported by his desire to “mix freely with the ulema and [take] something from them all, so that he [can gather] together a vast amount of assorted knowledge which was [confusing] and contradictory” (Hussein, 52).
From a universal stance the book provides a very real glimpse of a human accomplishment. Unlike other texts and movies Hussein does not glorify his accomplishment. The difference in Hussein’s ordeal in comparison to the ordeals of other heroes is that his failures and accomplishments are not absolute, which makes it more real and more human, therefore it is easier for many of us to relate to. The manner in which he “inwardly [bemoans] his fate… feeling resentment…heartfelt grief – when he hear[s] his brothers and sisters describing things about which he [has] no knowledge at all,” (Hussein, 16) does not make Hussein a very likeable character. One would expect in a story like this the hero would overcome such difficulties with perseverance, however surprisingly enough Hussein somewhat glorifies his repeated failures and describes his confrontations with his father upon a failure with intricate detail. “…and it was certainly a fatal day, in which for the first time our friend tasted the bitterness of failure, humiliation, degradation and hatred of life…His father came to meet him, bade him….[and] then asked him to recite…this request fell on him like a thunderbolt...His father prompted him by telling him some of the words which followed, but in spite of this he could not proceed at all…Our friend stood ashamed while the perspiration poured forth” (Hussein, 26-27). The interesting question that could then be posed is why would Hussein ridicule his own behavior and what could the global audience learn from this portrayal? I believe Hussein in describing his childhood in this particular manner wanted to show a piece of literature that illustrated the realities of life; a literature that people cannot retreat to escape the harsh setbacks of life and be inspired of the hero's ability to face and conquer setbacks. This though brought to mind a song that has a particularly contrasting genre compared to Taha Hussein's An Egyptian Childhood. Sung by a pop group called Chumbawamba and titled "Tubthumping," the band complains about the miseries of life throughout the entire song as did Taha Hussein throughout the novel, but whenever things seem low and dreadful they switch to the chorus which goes as follows: "I'll get knocked down but then I'll get up again and then you'll never beat me down. But then "I'll get knocked down again but then I'll get up again and then you'll never beat me down." This chorus as in Taha Hussein's autobiography provides the global audience with a message regarding the nature of life; it implies that miseries are part of life in addition to failures and it is how many times one "get[s] up again" despite knowing that he will "get knocked down" will determine how well one will be able to deal with his miseries, which is the reality of our lives.
A surrealist movie such as Un Chien Andalou that is initially created for individuals to interpret them as they see it cannot be explained in terms of it being culturally specific or universally appealing, since the authors do not have a message they wish to convey - their message is for the individual to derive their own message from viewing the movie. However, the tools used to create this movie – the characters, symbols, paraphernalia and themes can be explained as being culturally specific or universally appealing but only at a manifest level, since the latent content is prone to subjectivity and bias.
Unlike in An Egyptian Childhood whereby Hussein had to conform to societal values the young lady in Un Chein Andalou could portray individualism. The ease, in which she made the decision to choose one man over the other during the beginning of the movie, illustrated her command and will to do what she desires without being restricted by societal constraints as Nnaemeka experienced in Achebe’s Marriage is a Private Affair. Moreover, that specific role being played by a woman, historically viewed in Victorian Europe – the director's main audience - as an inferior class, not only drove the point of individualism home but also implied the uprising of women and the need for more gender equality.
The two priests that were holding the man back from committing adultery and how they failed to stop him from pursuing his erotic desires illustrated the church’s fading authority and the weakening foothold of religion in Europe. The culturally specific interpretation that could be derived from these excerpts is the rise of individualism, whereby every individual has the freedom and choice to believe, accept or reject any idea, belief and value they wish to do so, since they are no restrained by any external factors including religious constraints. This is precisely the case in Europe and the western world, where teenagers are encouraged to leave the household at a young age to pursue their own life and make their own choices. Generally speaking their parents, values and societal pressures have a minimal role in their lives since the freedom they are given surpasses these constraints and this leads to many youngsters making bad choices that lead to desperate measures as illustrated in the shocking scene that initiated the movie.
On a macro-level the eternal themes of life, death, lust and love are thrown up at various points throughout the movie. Scenes where ants crawl out of a hand, a woman being sexually assaulted by a man and a serene utopian gardens help convey these eternal themes; however, there exists no framework on which to attach these emotions. Despite all this, I believe that Un Chien Andalou does not require such deep analysis, being much more a film which should be purely experienced, it achieves that which Buel and Dali aimed for which is something what nearly all great films do: to teach us more about ourselves.
"Girls became girls once more and boys boys" (Achebe, 104). I wish to extend on Chinua Achebe's quote to illustrate a world where in fact girls can be girls, Arabs can be Arabs, Christians can be Christians and humans can be humans. A world where everyone's outlook broadens, globalization continues, specific cultures remain intact and respect and self-affirmation is born in each individual whereby they innately believe that the girl, Arab and Christian next door in indeed an important part of this universe.
Bibliography
Achebe, Chinua. Girls at War and Other Stories. New York: Anchor Books, 1972.
Hussein, Taha. The Days. Trans. E.H. Paxton. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1997.
Un Chien Andalou. Dir. Salvador Dali and Luis Bunel. 1929.
