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Similes
Chapter 23
Explanation and Analysis—Treatment in Captivity:
In Chapter 23, Achebe utilizes situational irony as a device to shed light on the White colonizers' duplicity:
[The District Commissioner] told the court messengers, when he left the guardroom, to treat the men with respect because they were the leaders of Umuofia. They said, 'Yes, sir,' and saluted. . . . The six men ate nothing throughout that day and the next. They were not even given any water to drink, and they could not go out to urinate . . . .
In this excerpt, the District Commissioner commands his men to treat Umuofia's leaders with respect following their arrest and interrogation. The narrator proceeds to describe the court messengers' actions, which are anything but respectful. The court messengers taunt the six men, shaving their heads and knocking them together, refusing them food or water or dignity. Readers might have expected that the Commissioner's words will be heeded, but the ironic and tragic reality is that White colonizers rarely treated those they colonized with respect or humanity.
Achebe utilizes situational irony in this passage for the purpose of getting readers to empathize with Umuofia's leaders. They are in an unprecedented situation, no doubt facing shock, fear, and confusion. Achebe's use of irony in this passage reproduces those feelings of misalignment, drawing readers' attention to the wide gulf between expectation and reality.
Related Themes:
