Introduction

Chike’s School Days is a story about a first born son coming into a family full of daughters. It is because of this reason that Chike is given two additional names at baptism, including John and Obiajulu, meaning “the mind at last is at rest.” Chike was raised “in the ways of the white man,” (Achebe, 830) learning to shun old Nigerian religious and cultural practices. Despite the cultural shock, Chike develops a deep connection for literature and English words, even though he is unaware of all the meanings. Thus, we can understand a mixture of two different cultures combining to tell a tale that goes far beyond just the story of a boy.

Upbringing

Despite the differences Chike made for himself, he also had a very unusual upbringing with his father being a little on the high archy who married his mother, who was Osu, which is of lower class in Nigeria. In the story, it states, "Chike was brought up in the ways of the white man, which meant the opposite of traditional." (830) Meaning, he was kind of put on a pedestal as a child growing up. Another example of this is when he is at the neighbor's house and his friend's mother offers him something to eat and he says, "we don’t eat heathen food." (828) You can tell that although he is an Osu child, he was raised to basically think otherwise. I think the biggest factor could be that Chike was the first son born to a family of daughters, so that could have had a big influence on the way e was brought up as well.

Language

It is important to note the significance of the English language that it has in the story, and how infatuated Chike becomes with learning the language despite not knowing what most of it even means. He studies the dictionary and is fascinated by big words like “periwinkle” (829) which he has no idea what the meaning is, but just more excited about the sounding of the word and we can see that in the end when he turns it into a song. Chike takes much relation to upbringing in that sense, because he was brought up 'in the ways of a white man' and although he went to a religious school, he was still able to comprehend "the mysteries of white man's learning" (829). Chike knew that the world was going towards the English language, and so he did have some struggles with his native background, but nonetheless he still managed to learn and make the best of the new language.

Education

Education was very important to Chike. Hence the title, "Chike's School Days." Although he struggled learning literature, there was no doubt he was never going to give up. “He liked particularly the sound of English Words, even when they conveyed no meaning at all.” (830) By conveying no meaning at all, we mean that Chike didn't understand the meaning of half the words he was saying, but he still tried to learn the education system. The British education system that was. This idolization of Western culture that Chike is battling is a representation of a larger issue of Post Colonialism. It imposes a sort of front or this show that the Western ideas and culture have a false general belief of superiority. We see this in a lot of third-world countries especially in one of a lower population, run-down country like Western Nigeria. The interesting connotation with this is that Chike is forced to grow up in this multi-cultural environment, and he himself is multi-cultural with the marriage of his parents and being from one class and looked at as something different. We can see the conflict this has on Chike as he works to find his true identity through English and literature.

Marriage Rituals

Chike’s father, Amos, who is a Christian gets heavily criticized for marrying Sarah who is an Osu in the Nigerian culture. Even though Chike's family behaves in the same rituals as an upper class Nigerian family, many neighbors and over people condemned them mainly due to the fact that Amos, the father, is now considered partially Osu, for marrying Sarah. Part of them being condemned was being pronounced as 'untouchable' to the kids of the Nigerian family. That was a little disappointing to read about, because although the same rituals may not be in place today, but just because two people want to get married that shouldn't ruin the whole reputation of a family all the way down to the children as well. I was glad that despite the hatred the family received, they still lived their lives the way they wanted.

Significance of Names

Another example of rituals could be the significance of the three names Chike was given. This is what separated Chike from a lot of Nigerian children is the names he was given at baptism. “John” is a Christian white man’s name, signifying the importance of a son in the family, which can also correlate to predominantly upper class societies in household family rituals. Obiajulu is more of a common name in African culture, meaning “the mind at last is at rest,” which can symbolize that since he is the sixth child and the first born son, then maybe the parents were finally put it “rest” after having Chike born. And the name Chike is pretty self-explanatory as that his the name everyone calls him, but I am not too sure if that has much significance or what it means in Nigerian terms. Overall, it is interesting that a boy his age has three different names all residing from different cultural platforms.

Importance of Song

"Once there was a wizard. He lived in Africa. He went to China to get a lamp."

At the end of the novel, it explains how Chike kept repeating this line, eventually turning it into a song of his own. I believe there to be a lot of significance here that adheres to the overall message because throughout the novel we have this battle for identity, so by Chike turning this new vocabulary into a song signifies the importance he has in connecting different cultures by a means of language. Chike kind of uses it as an escape from reality into like a dream world sort of sense. We can tell this by the quote at the end of the book, “It was like a window through which he saw in the distance a strange, magical new world.” (830)

Overview

Overall, I think there is a lot more to the tale then just what meets the eye. We read about a Christian boy that is going to school and wanting to learn English and experiencing culture differences, but I think Achebe has lots of true meaning in writing this tale the way he did, in maybe a reflection of his own personal life that inspired him to write this the way he did.