a handful of us - the smart and the lucky and hardly ever the best - had scrambled for the one shelter our former rulers left, and had taken it over and barricaded themselves in.Then, Odili considers, the smart and lucky handful (the new ruling group), from their privileged position in the dry house, seekto persuade those outside that the first phase of the struggle has been won and that the next phase - the democratic extension ofthe house - called for different tactics. It required "that all argument should cease and the whole people speak with one voiceand that any more dissent and argument outside the door of the shelter would subvert and bring down the whole house." (p. 42)In using the image of the rain and the house, Achebe focuses attention on the paramount contradiction of thepost-Independence period: a few are inside the house of power, the majority are outside. The relationship between thismajority and the new elite is under consideration. Concepts of fair-play and human justice (in the face of dishonest gains) areclearly raised by Achebe's analogy. The nature of honesty itself is in question. These issues constitute the field of values in AMan of the People.Odili, the young University graduate and teacher (a figure who has his foot planted in the door of the 'house' and pushing hard),and Chief the Honourable M.A. Nanga, M.P., are the major figures created by Achebe to personalise these socialcontradictions. Odili, as narrative voice, is handled ironically by the novelist. In terms of characterisation, he is defined by agreater or lesser identity with the more constant values of Chief Nanga. Odili is portrayed as an ambitious youth with opinionsand attitudes that are in a constant state of flux, a perpetual process of modification. He approaches the contradictions of hisindividual position with what is projected as a naive searching for the 'right' way, for himself and for the nation. Odili accepts, asno idle talk, the co...
