Chinua Achebe, in his novel Arrow of God, explores in the character of Ezeulu the nature of the relationship between the human and the divine. Ezeulu is an old man, the Chief Priest of the tribe of Umuaro, at a time of great transition for the tribe and for the old man. It is a fascinating and intense story not only for its novelistic value but because it deals with issues which touch every reader---faith, one's own role in life and in society, aging, the relationships among human beings, nature and God, power relations in a community, racial relations, and many others. In other words, it is not a work about an exotic locale and people of a different era with no relation to our own. The story of Ezeulu and his people is a universal story with direct and moving applications to every society in every time.
For example, Ezeulu is immediately shown by the author to be a man who is questioning his great power at the same time that he is being challenged as a leader. He is in that sense a tragic hero, pushed by his own nature and by social and divine forces to take extreme stands which test him to the limit. He debates within himself the meaning of his life and his role in society in a fierce internal conflict which reminds the reader of Hamlet's soliloquies:
Whenever Ezeulu considered the immensity of his power over the year and the crops and, therefore, over the people he wondered if it was real. . . . He was really a watchman. His power was no more than the power of a child over a goat that was said to be his. . . . . No! the Chief Priest of Ulu was more than that, must be more than that (Achebe 3).
We come to know Ezeulu and his people as complex, intelligent individuals, sometimes wise, sometimes foolish, sometimes tender, sometimes vicious---in short, as fully human beings. Achebe clearly wants us to travel through the life, mind, heart and soul of Ezeulu in order to appreciate this great leader and vital man. The author doe...