Intertexuality in Chinua Achebe's No Longer at Ease

This paper critically examines the centrality of intertextuality in the appreciation 
of Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease (1960).  Achebe includes a pertinent
example of epigraph in his novel. He quotes from T.S.Eliot, whose poem mirrors
the postcolonial condition that is explored at length in his novel. “The Journey
of the Magi” deals with the difficult journey of the Biblical Magi or Wise Men as
they searched for Christ. Their journey parallels the Protagonist, Obi Okonkwo’s
journey from Nigeria to England and then back to Nigeria. He finds himself no
longer at ease with his fellow countrymen and his culture. His estrangement from
his culture is the same problem that thousands of Africans and Indians faced after
their western education. They are not comfortable with their own culture and at the
same time they are not willingly follow the new culture that they had embraced. This
paper therefore attempts to explore that Achebe’s No Longer at Ease (1960) reflects
the post colonial complications and also ventures to highlight that the epigraph
illuminates important aspect of the novel.