Arrow of God
Ezeulu, chief priest of Ulu in the six villages of Umuaro, keeps the calendar by eating one sacred yam at each new moon, so no harvest may be gathered until he has said the word. A quarrel with a rival deity's people, a district officer who wants him installed as a warrant chief, and a son sent among the missionaries to learn where the new power lives leave him certain that his god is using him for something. Achebe thought this his best novel, and it is the one where the collision runs through the priesthood rather than arriving at the compound gate.
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Lineage
- companion to ↑ Things Fall Apart
Attributes
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Plot structure
Emotional arc (story shape)
Symbol / motif
Culture / tradition
Closest analogues
- 59% · 16 shared
- 59% · 15 shared
- 54% · 13 shared
- 54% · 13 shared
- 54% · 13 shared
- 52% · 13 shared