English 101

Write a reflection essay based on the following prompt:
In what ways might “The Headstrong Historian” be considered Things Fall Apart fan fiction? In what ways is Adichie’s story something more? What do the resonances with Things Fall Apart add to “The Headstrong Historian”? What do Adichie’s innovations add to the experience of reading Things Fall Apart?
250+ words (not including direct quotations)

ANSWER

Headstrong Historian

The Headstrong Historian has been considered as an extension, completion, and revision of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Adichie has presented three generations of cosmopolitans as well as three varying iterations of cosmopolitanism. Headstrong Historian is fan fiction since it has similar themes as Things Fall Apart. Using Obierka in his writing has shown a significant textual innovation that is employed by Adichie as a kind of starting point which signifies a new literary revision or writing back.

Relatively, the language used has been similar to things fall apart. For instance, it is found similar to Things fall Apart after mentioning that Obierika one of the characters is a name that readers identify easily with Achebe (Adichie, 2008). Adichie has illustrated the story through the perception of women that offers more detail concerning a tribe’s way of life. It also offers more information concerning what it is like to experience European colonialism from the perception of Nigerian tribe members. Adichie tells about the Nigerian tribal culture and the Nigerians that grapple with the culture changes and clashes (Adichie, 2008). The narrator has refused to judge characters with their actions. The headstrong historian has proved how Adichie has depended on and extended the novel Things Fall Apart.

Adichie has refreshed the novel, Things Fall Apart, by adding the African Flavor. Various themes such as fate and destiny among other cultural themes have been present in Adichie and Achebe’s novels to tell their plots thus forcing the characters to work through physically to answer questions of universal truth. Through adding the account of African history and identity, Adichie’s story has developed its source text in areas such as politics, history, religion, and gender. Thus, Headstrong Historian offers a human time which is a shared experience in which the life of the late generations can be traced and located during in the world development. Headstrong Historian takes the third person which means that the narrator communicates the feelings and thoughts of characters used in the story.

References

Adichie, C. N. (2008). “The Headstrong Historian”. NEW YORKER-NEW YORKER MAGAZINE INCORPORATED-, 2008, 68.