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Situational Irony
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Achebe’s style in No Longer at Ease is sparse, direct, and insightful. He is a master of saying a lot in just a few words: he uses simple and often short sentences to recount precisely the events of his plot and the emotions of his characters, but these events and emotions create complex and tightly woven works.
A great example of Achebe’s style occurs at the start of Chapter 16:
The most immediate problem was how to raise thirty pounds before two o’clock the next day. There was also Clara’s fifty pounds which he must return. But that could wait. The simplest thing would be to go to a moneylender, borrow thirty pounds and sign that he had received sixty. But he would commit suicide before he went to a moneylender.
Here, Achebe identifies a fact-based problem and explains Obi’s attitude towards solving it in language that is direct and blunt. This kind of sparseness extends throughout the novel. One effect of this style, though, is that when Achebe does elect to use vivid imagery or figurative language, they stand out in both style and theme. Throughout the novel, for instance, stark but simple similes or proverbial sayings interrupt Achebe’s usual directness with a startling image or thematic revelation.
Achebe’s style relies on dialogue, logistics, and finances to spur the plot forward; these events then compound in ways that closely interrogate interior and societal themes. On a large scale, Achebe is a skilled architect: though his sentences seem simple, his novels are complicated structures that delve deep into difficult themes like colonialism, modernity, and the power of language.
Related Themes:
