From repression to Displacement: A Psychoanalytic Reexamination of the Hero in Chinua Achebe’s <i>Things Fall Apart</i>

Abstract

The protagonist of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has been variously described by critics as a hero or an anti-hero owing to his conformity or otherwise to the concept of heroism depending on the perspective from which each critic appraises his actions and behavioural traits. From the classical to the modern, there have been myriad definitions of heroism. Even in the Igbo society from which the protagonist of the novel is located, certain qualities of a hero in their perception and perspectives are observable in the protagonist, yet, he dies almost unsung by his people. Was the protagonist his people’s hero? This paper addresses the issue through a reexamination of the concept of heroism from a psychoanalytic perspective. It reassesses the qualities of the protagonists in the light of
unconscious motivations of behaviour or about actions and factors  responsible for them in order to identify or determine the type of heroism that obtains in this narrative. Closely examining his childhood or his past, the paper attempts to explore how the repressed materials in the  protagonist’s memory, become a propelling force for his acts of heroism or villainy. Based on the analyses of the protagonist’s unconscious, the paper concludes that he is not an Igbo hero.