Richard Wright and Chinua Achebe - Wisdom at the Crossroads of Cultures

 

Increasingly, the cultures of different areas come into contact with each other, cross, and even merge. Major examples of this can be found in Africa’s interactions in recent centuries with other spreading societies, both in how Europeans influenced Africa and in how many Africans ended up oppressed and enslaved in America. Richard Wright  and Chinua Achebe  are two writers who explored the topics of racial and cultural clashing in America and Africa. Two of their stories, Wright’s The Man Who Was Almost a Man and Achebe’s Chike’s School Days, both explore the theme that prejudice between cultures leads to conflict in youths.

The Man Who Was Almost a Man examines this theme directly, following a young African American man named Dave whose inner conflict between his society’s view of blacks and his own need to feel like a man leads him to getting a hold of a gun. His motives are the most clear when he first feels the sense of power his gun gives him. “Could kill a man with a gun like this,” he thinks to himself. “Kill anybody, black or white.” Ultimately, Dave’s struggle leads him to keep his gun when he’s supposed to return it and flee from his oppressive society.

Chike’s School Days, a short story by Chinua Achebe, explores the same theme more lightly, and with much a much less ominous conclusion. Chike is a young African boy growing up as a Christian in an African community. Although it never breaks into an outward conflict, Chike is shown unknowingly breaking the traditions of his ancestors in favor is Christian upbringing. He is a member of the lowest ring of his society’s caste system, yet refuses a gift of food from his neighbors, saying, “We don’t eat heathen food.” This line is perceived as an arrogance which his neighbors attribute directly to his white upbringing. This little conflict, and others, like the conflict between his father and grandmother, give a strong impression that the clash of cultures will intrude into Chike’s life more as he grows older and begins to understand the world around him more, even if the story itself is pleasant and relaxing.

Undertale is a videogame I can highly recommend that explores this topic on a more generalized level. In Undertale, you play as a child who falls into a vast cave of monsters who, in many cases, have a prejudice against humans as dark, mysterious, even evil beings. Depending on how you play, you can convince the monsters to become your friends, cause their annihilation, or anywhere in between. While Undertale makes many other points as well, it serves as an entertaining example of how one’s actions can either perpetuate or defy preconceived stereotypes about people groups.

            As a writer, it is becoming ever more important to recognize conflicting cultures, and to find try to find ways to leave them at peace with each other. The effect of these clashes on youths, and really on everyone, ought to be motivating us to be more mindful of cultural differences. Maybe I’m idealistic, and these conflicts will continue forever. Yet, maybe, with a great deal of time and effort, people can learn to resolve our different pasts without letting them lead to centuries of conflict.

           

Works Cited

Puchner, M. (2013). The Norton Anthology of World Literature: Volume 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Retrieved from https://digital.wwnorton.com/worldlit3v2