ARROW OF

GOD
CHAPTER 13-15
SERENA WILLIAMS 6A1
 CHAPTER 13
Ezeulu calls a meeting of the important men of
Umuaro to tell them he’s been summoned to Okperi.
Nwaka teases him, claiming that he wanted to be the
white man’s friend six years ago, when he testified
against his own people in the Okperi land dispute.
Ezeulu retorts he has called the gathering not to ask
for advice but to tell them what he plans to do, since
his mind is already made up.
 CHAPTER 13
Winterbottom is planning a visit to headquarters, but
is feeling unwell. He puts Clarke in charge in his
absence. He is incensed by Ezeulu’s failure to comply
with his messengers, and puts out a warrant for his
arrest. He instructs Clarke to leave the Chief Priest
locked up until he returns from his trip, but before he
can leave he falls into a feverish delirium and is
taken to the hospital.
 CHAPTER 13
Two policemen travel to Umachala to Ezeulu’s
compound only to discover that he set off that
morning for Okperi with his son. They make a show of
intimidating the people of the village and the
household, taking food and palm wine and staying the
night before they return.
 CHAPTER 13
Meanwhile, rumor spreads around Government Hill
and Okperi that the Igbo Chef Priest vindictively
caused Winterbottom’s illness. Ezeulu and Obika
arrive in Okperi, where Clarke sends them to the
guardroom for the night. John Nwodika and his wife
bring food, but Ezeulu refuses to eat. The policemen
who went to Umuaro to arrest Ezeulu are afraid the
Chief Priest will curse them as well, and, on the
advice of a medicine man, they leave an elaborate
sacrifice along the highway
 CHAPTER 14
Ezeulu has a nightmare vision in which the people of
Umuaro are accusing his grandfather of being unable
to defeat the white man. They call for the burning of
Ulu, just as the people of Anita once dispensed with
their god, Ogba (an incident that is brought up as a
cautionary tale for Ezeulu a number of times
throughout the text). Ezeulu eventually becomes his
grandfather and is jostled and spit at by his people.
He awakes shaken and vows to take revenge on his
people, who, he reasserts, are the real problem—not
the white man.
 CHAPTER 14
Clarke and Wade find the policemen’s sacrifice on
the way to the hospital to visit Winterbottom, and
Wade desecrates it by removing the English florin
they have used. Clarke is shocked that anyone would
disrespect such an elaborate ritual arrangement.
 CHAPTER 14
Obika returns to Umuaro and reports on the situation
in Okperi. Akuebue is concerned to learn that
Nwodika, from the antagonistic Umunneora, is
feeding Ezeulu, and insists on going to Okperi
himself. He sets out with Ugoye, who brings food, as
well as Edogo and others. Akuebue also worries that
Ezeulu might orchestrate a situation harmful to
himself out of pure spite for his people.
 CHAPTER 14
The caravan arrives. Nwodika tells the story of how
he came to work for the white man, describing how
his opportunistic friend told him he would be foolish
to miss out on the race for the white man’s money.
He describes his plans to establish a tobacco trading
post, and also details his shame at the people of
Umuaro, who are failing to take advantage of the
opportunities colonial presence offers.
 CHAPTER 15
Winterbottom tells Clarke to leave Ezeulu in prison
until he agrees to cooperate. Clarke had tired to
make one more attempt to change Ezeulu's mind, and
failed. So he didn't know whether to let him go –
which could ruin the Administration's reputation –or
keep him. Clarke didn't feel quite right about keeping
Ezeulu in prison. After all, what did he write down
officially as Ezeulu's offense? That he refused to be a
chief?
 CHAPTER 15
But now Winterbottom had given him the answer.
After his meeting with Clarke, Winterbottom is too ill
for anybody to see him for two weeks. The servants
think he's gone mad or that he's paralyzed. Each
rumor only adds to Ezeulu's reputation. And
everybody sympathized, knowing that he was unjustly
imprisoned.
 CHAPTER 15
Ezeulu had now been in prison for 32 days. Then
suddenly he is told he can go home. Ezeulu laughs
and asks the messengers if the white man is tired.
They smile at him and agree. Ezeulu asks if they know
what his enemies call him. John Nwodika arrives at
that moment, and Ezeulu says that Nwodika will
confirm this: Ezeulu's enemies say he is a friend of
the white man, that he brought the white man to
Umuaro. Nwodika agrees that it is true.
 CHAPTER 15
Ezeulu continues, claiming that they say he betrayed
them to the white man. Then he wonders why he is
telling this story to strangers. But Nwodika says that
Ezeulu should stop worrying about that. Nobody at
home could wrestle with the white man as he has
done and come out on top.
 CHAPTER 15
Clarke had decided on his own to release Ezeulu.
Since had had failed to figure out a satisfactory
explanation for the man's imprisonment, he decided
to take matters into his own hands after he received
authorization from the Resident to make daily
decisions. He had received a report from the
Secretary for Native Affairs on Indirect Rule in
Eastern Nigeria, who recommended suspending the
appointment of warrant chiefs for new areas.
 CHAPTER 15
The Warrant Chief for Okperi was specifically
mentioned and the letter asked Winterbottom to
make decisions tactfully so that the Administration
would seem decisive and firm in the eyes of "the
natives." Winterbottom didn't seem all that interested
when he heard what Clarke had decided, and what
the Lieutenant Governor had said. He just said, "S***
on the Lieutenant Governor" pg 181
 Narrative POINT OF VIEW
third person (omniscient)
The narrator has the god-like ability to see into the
minds of every character in the book. It jumps from
one person's head to another's, often within the same
chapter. The story is primarily about Ezeulu, and we
spend more time in his head than any other
character's head, but the narrator can conveniently
pick and choose any character's point of view.
 Narrative POINT OF VIEW
importance of third person
(omniscient)
This narrator has no biases and can present the
thoughts, feelings, and actions of multiple characters.
The third-person omniscient narrator can also provide
context and details in a story for all the characters,
rather than for just one.
 THEMES
Power and
Authority
The theme of power and authority is central to
the novel, especially as it pertains to
leadership roles within the village. Readers
may witness power struggles between Ezeulu
and other influential figures such as Nwaka, as
well as conflicts between traditional
leadership structures and colonial
administration. eg. his conflict with Mr.Clarke
and Winterbottom
Colonialism and
Cultural Change
With the presence of colonial officials and
missionaries, these chapters explore the
impact of colonialism on the social,
cultural, and political fabric of the Igbo
community. The tensions arising from
cultural assimilation, resistance to change,
and the erosion of traditional values are
evident.
 THEMES
HUBRIS
Ezeulu is immensely prideful. Though we see hubris among other powerful
men in the story such as Ezidemili, Nwaka, and Tony Clarke, it is most
tragically articulated in Ezeulu, where it motivates to such an extent that it
ultimately brings about his personal demise and that of his people. Ogbuefi
Ofoka characterizes the tragic dimension of this pridefulness when he says
of Ezeulu toward the end of the book, “when a man as proud as this wants
to fight he does not care if his own head rolls as well in the conflict"
 HUBRIS- QUOTE
“His quarrel with the white man was insignificant beside the matter he must settle
with his own people. For years he had been warning Umuaro not to allow a few jealous
men to lead them into the bush. But they had stopped both ears with fingers. They had
gone on taking one dangerous step after another and now they had gone too far. They
had taken away too much for the owner not to notice. Now the fight must take place,
for until a man wrestles with one of those who make a path across his homestead the
others will not stop. Ezeulu’s muscles tingled for the fight. Let the white man detain
him not for one day but for one year so that his deity not seeing him in his place would
ask Umuaro questions.”
Ezeulu, Ch. 14
 HUBRIS- QUOTE CONT’D
These are thoughts Ezeulu thinks while detained in Okperi for refusing to accept the
title of Warrant Chief from the British. They show Ezeulu edging toward a momentous
decision to take grave punitive action against his own people that has been a long time
coming. They also reveal Ezeulu’s belief that, by detaining him, the white man is only
enabling his larger struggle against the people of Umuaro, thus serving a useful role,
going so far as to regard the British as his “ally” in the “real struggle was with his own
people.”
 THEMES
PATRIARCHY
Arrow of God depicts a highly patriarchal Igbo society, as embodied in
Ezeulu’s compound, in which the huts of wives and sons are arrayed around
that of the head of the household, all oriented toward serving Ezeulu’s
daily needs. Persistent themes include the sanctity of the father-son
relationship and the domestic duties of a man’s multiple wives.
 PATRIARCHY QUOTE
“Every man has his own way of ruling his household,” he said at last. “What I do myself if I
need something like that is to call one of my wives and say to her: I need such and such a
thing for a sacrifice, go and get it for me. I know I can take it but I ask her to go and bring it
herself. I never forget what my father told his friend when I was a boy. He said: in our custom
a man is not expected to go down on his knees and knock his forehead on the ground to his
wife to ask her forgiveness or beg a favor. But, a wise man knows that between him and his
wife there may arise the need for him to say to her in secret: “I beg you.” When such a thing
happens nobody else must know it, and that woman if she has any sense will never boast
about it or even open her mouth and speak of it. If she does it the earth on which the man
brought himself low will destroy her family. That was what my father told his friend who held
that a man was never wrong in his own house. I have never forgotten those words of my
father’s. My wife’s cock belongs to me because the owner of a person is also owner of
whatever that person has. But there are more ways than one of killing a dog.”
 PATRIARCHY QUOTE CONT’D
Ezeulu’s comments to Akuebue are a rare moment of intimate reflection on the
patriarchal dynamics present in Arrow of God. Speaking to his friend, Ezeulu speaks to
the secretive displays of weakness or tenderness that might sustain a marriage, while
reenforcing the imperative to remain outwardly a strong patriarch and head of
household. Ezeulu concludes the admission with a reminder that woman are
thoroughly the property of men.
 literary devices and
techniques
ALLEGORY
The story of the Nza (allegory)
The oft-invoked story of the Nza, or
little bird, that ate and drank to such
a state of intoxication that he
challenged his own chi, is an allegory
that, from Ezeulu’s perspective,
describes the people of Umuaro’s
insolence and, from an objective
perspective, might symbolize
Ezeulu’s own hubris.
quote
But Umuaro had grown wise and
strong in its own conceit and had
become like the little bird, nza, who
ate and drank and challenged his
personal god to a single combat.
Umuaro challenged the deity which
laid the foundation of their villages.
And—what did they expect?—he
thrashed them, thrashed them
enough for today and for tomorrow!
Chapter 2
 literary devices and
techniques
metaphor-you call this wrestling?
In chapter 15, when Nwodika praises Ezeulu for having pinned the white man to the
ground, Ezeulu replies, "You call this wrestling? No, my clansman. We have not wrestled.
We have merely studied each other's hand." Here, Nwodika and Ezeulu are offering
different metaphors for the conflict with the white man. While Nwodika sees it as a
simple physical contest and thinks the match has already been fought and won, Ezeulu
implies that the contest is much more strategic and subtle—and that it is still at an early
stage, as in a card game where one tries to guess what the other player is holding. The
different metaphors reflect views of the same process..