My sweaty palm sticks to the novels cover as I stroke it, seeking answers from it

like a fortune teller caressing their magic ball. It has a strange texture: grainy
almost like sand on concretetough and coarse. Maybe this is a symbol? Is this
sandy surface the last remains of a dying culture, or just one that has begrudgingly
chosen to follow a new path? A path that was not chosen for it; forced and accepted
the coming of a new season.
This sandy concrete feels strange, eerie in my hands as I grasp it. Something here
does not fit. I have felt this texture before, but never considered its implications. My
mind calls back. The Bible, I remember. Does it not have this same feel? The same
weight in my hands and on my mind?
Arrow of God. Rifle of God. Word of God. God? Are we just weapons in the hand of
an omnipotent spirit?
Ezecristu or Ezeulu. One is not the other; both are the same.
Orwell urges us to choose our words wisely. No euphemism, no hyperbole, merely
language as an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing
thought (Orwell 19).
Achebe begins: It was true he named the day for the feast of the Pumpkin Leaves
and for the New Yam Feast; but he did not choose it. He was merely a watchman
No! the Chief Priest of Ulu was more than that, must be more than that. If he should
refuse to name the day there would be no festivalBut could he refuse? No Chief
Priest had ever refused. So it could not be done. He would not dare (Achebe 3).
How Orwellian.
Arrow of God calls into question one mans identity, his power and his trust, and in
doing so rips the manthe worldin half. Ezeulu is not a king. But, his position
offers him the status of an extraordinary man. Yet, he is not an individual. He is, to
borrow from Achebes own words, a man split in half. Left and rightnot oneis he.
A tragic division that ultimately confuses his purpose, casts him into doubt and
shatters his world and everyone elses around him.
To stray (because I like to stray, like a boat sifting through the waters on a crooked
path only to reach its port), I think the novels cover confounds the authors
message. Shown on the front on a blood orange background reminiscent of a yams
innards, a man is cut in half at the hip by an arrow descending from above. This
darkened figure lays fallen, beat down by a God that must have betrayed himor is
it the other way around?
What this image portends is a man divided by his own adherence to the voice that
guides him. But Edel Rodriguez (credited on the back for his lovely cover) errs in his
depiction of a fallen Ezeulu. Ezeulu was never a man cut at the hip, unable to
connect the steps he takes with his thoughts. In fact, his words: I have my own way

and I shall follow it. I can see things where other men are blind. That is why I am
Known and at the same time I am Unknowable (Achebe 132). He was a man split
left and right, between his job as an Umuaran ritual-specialist and his intellect.
Thus, a curiosity emerges: which part of Ezeulu was known, and that unknowable?
Ah! In straying I have found my thesisor should I say my arrow? I argue that
Ezeulu failed to separate his right side from his left and ultimately became the
arrow that shot its archer in the foot.
Eze, as Achebe mentions, is the Igbo word for king. Speed believes it to mean
voice. How one interprets the meaning of this word becomes critical to evaluating
Ezeulu.
If we take Ezeulu to be the king of Ulu, or the king under Ulu, we get a man who is
power-driven, demanding of respect and superior. In Arrow of God, we see this side
of Ezeulu. Ezeulu is a man of ambition; he wants to be king, priest, diviner, all. His
father, they said, was like that too (Achebe 27). Careful! we yell to the stubbornly
deaf Ezeulu, the death that will kill a man begins as an appetite (Achebe 89).
There are many examples throughout the text that support this position. Most in
Umuaro see Ezeulu as a resentful king priest who seeks to exert his God-given
power over the people in a grab for power. His mysticism in regards to this holy
spirit that either guides him or asserts his power renders him arcane to his peers.
The priest was unknowable. Even his sons did not know him (Achebe 131). In
speaking with his friend Akuebue, a mystically split Ezeulu is revealed: one half of
you is man and the other half spirit (Achebe 133). We can witness that Ezeulus
responsibilities as ritual-specialist and his intellectual actions are blindingly
intertwined.
Yet if we perceive Ezeulu as Ulus voice, the perception becomes much different. Ulu
comes to Ezeulu when Ezeulu has allowed his status to reach his head. Ulu chastises
him for it: who said that this was your own fight to arrange the way it suits you?
(Achebe 191). Here we see Ezeulu weakened: this is the point where we truly see
the divide between Ezeulu as a ritual-specialist, operating under his deity, and the
intellectual, left to consider how Ulu has thrown him about on a path that Ezeulu
mistakenly thought was under his own control.
In this realization we reach the critical point in Ezeulus development. Achebe grabs
us by the throat and rips the book in half, leaving us with our heads rolling on the
floor. He was no more than an arrow in the bow of his god (emphasis mine)New
thoughts tumbled over themselves and past events took on new, exciting
significance. Why had Oduche imprisoned a python in his box?...What if the boy was
also an arrow in the hand of Ulu? (Adeche 191). Here we obtain a little more clarity
on the subject in this blow to the gut. Ezeulu never really had control, his own
thoughts were his, but he was always under the guise of Ulu, who had much in
store.

Ezeulu as an intellectual is sobering. A man who is quite ordinary, normal, is tossed

into a role that pretends him to be a king. And even then, what authority does this
poor man have? Ulu, a made-up deity, one not even respected by some in Umuaro,
unloads a false power on his voices shoulders, trapping himakin to being locked
in a box like a swirling, circling python, caught in conundrum and contradiction.
Which is why it is so surprising at the end that Ezeulus almight god destroys
himself and the sad king-priest everything hinged on. For in destroying his priest
he had also brought disaster on himself...thereafter any yam harvested in his fields
was harvested in the name of the son (Achebe 230).
Was Ezeulu just another Ezecristu like Winterbottom or Goodfellow, a voice of God,
a pawn in an endless game of chess? And was his religion any different from theirs?
In the end, one must wonder whether one day another Ezecristu, a pretend or real
voice of God, will come along and supplant the worlds Winterbottoms, beat them at
their own game and disrupt the channels of history. In this disastrous moment,
surely our hope in the marauders confusion would be that we could distinguish our
left from our right.

Word Work
Christopher (kh-ris-tuh-fur)
a. A common Catholic male name. From Greek, meaning Christ-Bearer or Bearer
of Christ.
b. Columbus: A famous Italian explorer who was one of the first to discover new
lands in the West.
c. Bunker: Named after (b).
i.
Italian male. 19 years of age, born in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
ii.
Raised in a non-practicing Roman Catholic household (no rosaries). Has
not been baptized, despite his parents wishes.
iii.
Parents: Bradley and Antonella.
iv.
Fluent in French and Italian. World-traveler, spent approximately onefourth of his life oversees in a heavily Catholic environment.
v.
Believer in God, meta, Yahweh, the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ, etc.
vi.
Reads the bible sparingly.
vii.
Part Igbo?
Bunker (bun-kher)
a. A cluster of sand, often hidden, placed strategically on a golf course as an
obstacle.
b. Archie: Semi-famous father on the 70s show All In the Family.
i.
Common reference for those who do not recognize the name.
c. A military stronghold, often located underground, where those seeking to escape
harm often hide. ex. Hitlers Bunker.
d. Hill: A semi-famous locale in Charleston, Massachussets. Commonly known as
the location for the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first battle in the American War of
Independence. The battle actually took place on the nearby Breeds Hill, but
luckily no one seems to remember that fact.
i.
The place where my ancestors first cultivated lands back in the early 17 th
century. James Bunker was the first Bunker to reach America from Britain,

and established himself on what would eventually become Bunker Hill,

taking after his namesake.
e. Christopher: An Italian-American male. 19 years of age. Descendant of (d.i).
i.
Proud American. Wholly confused about his identity.
Ezecristu (Eh-zae-crees-too)
a. The voice of Christ. From the Igbo eze meaning voice or king, and the Latin
cristu, from the Greek christos, meaning anointed.
i.
Can also be interpreted as the Voice of God, King in Gods Realm.
ii.
The most holy spirit (as regarded by Christians, Catholics and their ilk).
iii.
The original prophet.
b. Someone bearing the message or word of the Holy God, Yahweh, Jesus Christ,
etc.
c. The Igbo Jesus Christ, dark of complexion.
d. A bearer of Christ.
i.
See, Christopher.
Arrow (Ehr-roh)
a. A wooden stick, usually measuring approximately twenty-four inches in length
and three centimeters in diameter, cut to a point or wielding an attached end
(via string, glue, etc.). Often used as a weapon in hunting or battle. Shot out of a
bow, a curved wooden stick that is tied at both ends with a string or wire,
providing tension with which to launch the arrow at great speeds.
b. A symbol of direction. The arrows point indicates a direction, whether North,
South, East or West. The arrow is a common symbol in travel, demonstrating a
method of indication destination.
c. Ezeulu: A man whose purpose in life is to act under the influence of the African
deity Ulu, often times calling for action that brings about a necessary or sought
after reaction.
i.
Could be classified as a weapon.
ii.
Ironically, a man without a designated direction or path to follow. He is
pushed on a winding path that often does not bring about the results or
expectations that Ezeulu seeks.
iii.
A dangerous tool, that when shot in the foot of its archer can bring about
drastic demise.
Thought (th-aught)
a. An intangible, metaphysical representation of an idea.
i.
Can spur or generate a material representation or creation of the idea
mentioned in (a).
ii.
When many ideas of this nature are combined, can form a process from
which ideas are turned into more applicable solutions.
b. Thinking: to reflect and consider. Generally, to devote mental energy into
creating ideas that will eventually contribute towards decisions.
c. Past-tense of think.
Intellectual (int-ehllec-shuahl)
a. One who processes, analyzes and composes thought, and demonstrates a
critical thinking process that generates change or ideas.
i.
Often regarded as intelligent or thinkers.

b. One who is often outcast in society for radical thinking or beliefs.

i.
Too much thought is considered dangerous when challenging original
beliefs created by societies.
c. One who disrupts the flow of the universe, bringing to the fore massive mischief
via thought and ideas.
i.
Can create new societies or bring about the end of societies.
Society (soh-scie-teah)
a. A construct predicated on people operating in similar fashion.
i.
A community formed by a population deciding to follow the similar
construct.
b. A jumbled mess of a system that puts people in positions that forces them to
either follow the societies laws or doubt them (often times, an intellectual).
c. A source of confusion and chaos that often times seems unresolvable to an
internal perceiver.
d. GOD?