Complexities and Contradictions in Human Nature and Societal Norms: A Study of Emeka Nwabueze's When the Arrow Rebounds

Abstract

The imaginative arts, which include the verbal and forging forms, collectively constitute man's veritable tools for self-exploration and self-consolidation. Of course, culture is a part of man's life. Some of these, together with the school subjects of religion, history, language, and a few others, constitute the humanities in academic parlance. Literature enjoys a pre-eminent status among them. The more a man indulges in culture, the higher he grows on the ladder of distinguishing himself from other animals with whom he shares the same biological origin. Fully consolidated, 'culture' man would have few fears that he cannot master and accommodate. In the play, When the Arrow Rebounds, the contradictions were identified: Ezeulu and his deity - Ulu contradiction, traditional belief system and Christian belief contradiction. This human nature led to the mass defection of Umuaro to Christianity, solved the problem between Ezeulu and his people, and the trouble between traditional religion and Christianity was also solved through Ezeulu's stubbornness and the mass defection of the Umuaro people to the western religion, as seen in this study. Existential theory was used as a tool for the analysis of this paper. At the end, the complexities and contradictions in human nature and societal norms were exposed, depicting reactionary tendencies in man.