Arrow of God

Arrow of God Literary Elements

Genre

Novel; Historical novel; post-colonial novel

Setting and Context

Igboland, Nigeria, 1920s

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person omniscient

Tone and Mood

Prophetic, mythical

Protagonist and Antagonist

Ezeulu is the protagonist; Nwaka is the antagonist

Major Conflict

Nwaka's challenge to Ulu pits him against Ezeulu, setting up a conflict between the villages.

Climax

The climax occurs when Clarke detains Ezeulu.

Foreshadowing

When Akuebue’s neighbor becomes ill, and the medicine man takes Obika’s chicken sacrifice home to eat instead of burying it, we see omens of future troubles to come.

Understatement

Allusions

Imagery

Paradox

Parallelism

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The different colonial officers in Okperi can be seen as metonymically representing different colonial attitudes and archetypes. Winterbottom is the veteran and the pragmatist; Clarke, the assistant district officer, is idealistic; and Wright, overseer of the Public Works Department, is overtly sadistic.

Personification

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