As both being men, Awoken and Annoy tried to hide their emotions over Snakeskin’s death; however, as the reader one knows that Awoken felt depressed and weak while Annoy was just as depressed as his father, but also disappointed in him. Awoken experienced depression. “Awoken did not taste any food for two days after the death of Shameful. He drank palm-wine from morning till night and his eyes were red and fierce like the eyes of a rat when caught by the tail and dashed against the floor. ” (Achebe ) Awoken clearly shows the moon signs of depression, as he loses appetite and begins to drink even more.
A person, in this case Awoken, does not want to eat and it is very common for people who are depressed to drown their sorrows with alcohol, thinking it will help them. Awoken also stayed in his hut avoiding everyone during this time, even his family, which lets the reader know Picador 2 that he does not want people to see him as being weak because it reminds him of his father. A rat that has been caught by the tail is helpless, so Achebe is trying to describe how Awoken feels, helpless. He also begins to elk down on himself. When did you become a shivering old woman,” Awoken asked himself, “you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor on war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Awoken, you have become a woman indeed. ” (Achebe ) Weak, the only word Awoken would have used to describe himself after Snakeskin’s death. He cannot describe why he feels this way after the death of some boy who wasn’t blood related and calls himself a “woman”, another way to say that he was weak and soft.
In his ultra, a woman may be the worst thing a man can call himself, or another man, due to the fact that all women do is stay at home to take of the kids and make his man happy no matter what he has done. Awoken, who has killed five men in the past, cannot come to the conclusion that Shameful really meant more to him than what he thought since he has fallen to pieces after his death. Annoy was also very depressed. “A deathly silence descended on Ginkgo’s compound. Even the very little children seemed to know. Throughout that day Annoy satin his mother’s hut and tears stood in his eyes. (Achebe ) One an only imagine the pain Annoy went through while losing what he once called a brother that had helped him become a man. If the very young children were aware of what was really going on, than Annoy would have alas known that Shameful was not going to go back with his own family, he knew there was no way they would just let him go like that. This happened after Awoken left with Shameful which was the only reason Annoy was able to show emotion about what they were going to do to Shameful. Annoy Picador 3 had already been beaten once for crying when he first found out about Shameful leaving.
Being afraid of his father, and not wanting to be beaten again, he waited to cry again until they left. It may not be completely obvious, but if one looked deeper at how Envoys acts when Awoken gets home after killing Shameful, they could see that he was disappointed in his father. “A vague chill had descended on him and his head had seemed to swell, like a solitary walker at night who passes an evil spirit on the way. Then something had given way inside him. It descended on him again, this feeling, when his father walked in that night after killing Shameful. (Achebe ) Annoy feels his ether could have done something about Shameful and did not have to kill him. He refers to himself as a “solitary walker” which would make Awoken the “evil spirit on the way” because he killed Shameful even though he had a choice, and did not have to go with the rest of the elders to kill him. Annoy will never forget the moment his father walked in that night because from the moment he set a foot in the hut, he knew his father had killed Shameful, the one he once called his brother. He cannot forgive his father for what he has done, as he did not do anything to try to stop what they had planned for muff an.
