The Madman

The short story “The madman” I really did enjoy reading.  It really captured my attention in many ways. It was actually the first story of Achebe that I could understand the first read through.  However I believe I enjoyed the story so much because I would actually agree with the author that there are people that are really schizophrenia who are just plain crazy and angry or people that become crazy or angry because of some type of embarrassment that has happen to them in their past. The madman number one who we were introduced first in the story was indeed schizophrenic and was angry at times but he wasn’t a threat to anyone.  In fact in my opinion I think that he appreciated life but was just crazy.  Nwibe was in much indeed a sane man. He was also a very successful man however he was very much an angry person.  He would yell about silly things like over a puppy as the short story described.  He became crazy or even angrier when madman number one took his pants, but became embarrassed because he ran out in front of everyone naked.  In fact the story says that Nwibe became tongued tied.  He was mostly embarrassed because he had a reputation to protect. Achebe stated that; "Nwibe was such a sensible man that no one could think of him beginning something he was not sure to finish." Nwibe was the guy to be excluding his anger issues. However people in today society including myself can relate to Nwibe only because we have all been embarrassed at one point in our lives,  of something that we felt might ruin our reputation so we stand speechless but grow to be very angry or upset when we think about how someone embarrassed us as an individual. In conclusion I leave you with a statement by: Onyeara Ogbete “Madness? What is that? Who is mad: the madman or the supposedly sane souls? Unfortunately, there is no set standard of sanity, but there are degrees of madness.”(www.Kwenu.com)