Hybrid identity can be examined throughout both novels, Things Fall Apart and Season of Migration to the North, by their distinct characters. For example, in Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo and his son Nwoye establish a sense of hybridity through their opposing views on colonization. Nwoye’s willingness to convert over to Christianity whilst remaining rooted in his culture and society, demonstrates a hybrid character. Okonkwo refuses colonization, resulting in his overall demise and suicide. But by examining the characters, and masculinity. One may note the hybridity, of the novel itself. The novel examines society, prior to colonization and during the beginning of colonization. The Igbo society prior to colonization, is written to establish similarities between the modern western society and that of the pre-colonized Igbo society. This fosters a growth in the readers understanding hybridity, through transcultural analysis.
The novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe establishes hybridity particularly by its critical attitudes toward “oppressive and extreme social and political systems like patriarchy” (Representation), which is best displayed by the characterization of Okonkwo. Things Fall Apart “condemns Okonkwo’s overreaching masculinity, especially the hostility to the emotional and artistic aspects of his culture” (Representation). Throughout the novel, Achebe describes Okonkwo’s unwillingness to display any kind of emotion. Okonkwo perceives emotion as weakness and his “obsessive masculinity prevents him from maintaining a balance between personal duties and public commitments” (Representation). Okonkwo leads a life, which consists of brutal treatment to those around him which leads to terror and nervousness amongst his family members, which in turn leads to a familial and social breakdown. For example, Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, “decides to leave his family, religion, and society in reaction to his father’s extreme patriarchy and the violent practices of the Igbo community” (Representation). The extreme and violent practices that Nwoye’s father and culture display, results in his becoming a “solitary walker in the night, lost, and isolated, looking for alternative and more flexible realities” (Representation). Nwoye, embraces Christianity, because of it lenient and suppler ways. “Okonkwo’s oppressive and extreme masculinity does not allow him to appreciate and embrace the plural aspects of his culture and the democratic aspects of the Christian faith” (Representation). Oknonkwo appears to be destined for destruction from the beginning of the novel as he displays a complete disregard for other cultural aspects valued within the Igbo culture. “Okonkwo is seen as an allegorical figure that symbolizes resistance to white rule, and his death symbolizes the destruction of indigenous rule and culture” (76). The novel is thus concluded to promote hybridity by “appropriating the new white culture rather than rejecting it” (Representation). The presentation of extremesit and tolerant perspectives displayed within the Igbo community, allow the narrative to reinforce hybridity.
In both novels, Season of Migration to the North and Things Fall Apart, the narratives reinforce hybridity by displaying a critical attitude towards the inadequacies of their respective indigenous cultures, particularly the indigenous practices which do not promote change, diversity and alternative possibilities. These critcisms, such as “patriarchal oppression, are usually associated with traditionally marginalized perspectives like those of women and youth” (Representation).
127 our experts are availableright now
