"Postcolonial Triangles": An Analysis of Masculinity and Homosocial Desire in Achebe's A Man of the People and Greene's The Quiet American — Page 3:
11 Girard's notion of the rival as "mediator" also becomes humorously evident in this novel as well. When Pyle finally tells Phuong his feelings, Fowler literally claims that he will "act as interpreter" and mediate Pyle's competitive intentions by translating them to the woman (76). After this scene which makes the rivalry extremely apparent, the competition between men grows more aggressive. Fowler even jokes that they should call off the battle and "dice for her" (78). This is not the only time when the notion of traffic in women is raised; Fowler makes comments that reference trade throughout the text such as "I can't outbid Pyle" (120). Despite the seemingly strong heterosexual desire that these men claim to have for the object, these comments promote the view that the real connection is between Fowler and Pyle. Even when Phuong does not accept Pyle's first proposal, Pyle asks Fowler "You won't let this come between us, will you?" (79). And after Pyle's death, Fowler feels Pyle's absence in his life and asks "Am I the only one who really cared for Pyle?" (22). In this novel, the bonds between men become filled with the desire that would traditionally be felt between a man and a woman.
12 Unlike Greene's narrator, who is a reflection of fading Britain, Achebe's hero is the product of a newly independent nation state. Achebe is confronting the murky politics of postcolonial Nigeria as he writes A Man of the People. Simon Gikandi, in Reading Chinua Achebe, stresses that Achebe faced great challenges in capturing contemporary Nigerian politics in his novel and that the author "struggled to find an appropriate form to represent the contradictory impulses of the postcolonial situation"(101). Given Achebe's position as an African novelist frustrated with the history of imperialism in his country, it seems surprising that he would plot desire in a way similar to Greene. Yet, Achebe sets up a rivalry between Odili, the University educated teacher, and Chief Nanga, the government minister and politician, that resembles the rivalry between Fowler and Pyle. The tension between Chief Nanga and Odili is realized immediately in the novel as Odili expresses his concerns that the Chief uses "his [political] position to enrich himself" (2). Odili softens his harsh criticism of Nanga when the Chief invites him to share in his prosperity; nevertheless, tension reemerges when a woman comes between the two men. Elsie, Odili's former lover, is initially positioned as Odili's prize possession as the narrator claims that he "feel[s] a little jealous anytime [he] found her reading and re-reading a blue British air-letter" (25). A battle subsequently emerges over Elsie when Nanga makes the move to sleep with her right under Odili's nose. This battle is extremely ironic, however, because Odili shows he has no true regard for the woman. Once the affair takes place, Odili calls Elsie a "common harlot" despite the years of friendship that they shared (72). He feels the emotion of betrayal towards the man that he was beginning to trust; he attributes all the pain, jealousy and envy that he feels at Nanga and suddenly claims that he "no longer cared for anything but the revenge" (78). Achebe sets up the same model of desire as Greene in which the bonds between rivals become a stronger presence than the feelings toward the female object.
13 Achebe's plot in this novel moves from one triangulated structured into another. Odili seeks his revenge by desiring Nanga's "property" and he plots to steal Nanga's future second wife, Edna. The narrator characterizes the intensity of his passion for Edna as part of his overall need to politically and emotionally bring down Nanga (110). Even when Odili becomes more familiar with Edna he realizes that a part of him still wanted her "very remotely as a general part of revenge;" he tells the reader explicitly that "things seemed so mixed up; my revenge, my new political ambition, and the girl" (109-110). In addition, Nanga is revealed to lack a true love for this woman. The reader is told that Nanga wants a young wife because "his missus is too 'bush' for his present position so he wants a bright new 'parlour-wife' to play hostess at his parties" (23). The treatment of women in this novel is degrading on multiple levels, and the practice of traffic in women to facilitate male homosocial relations is also referenced in the text. This is evident as Odili and his father journey to Edna's male relatives to make the marriage exchange. Odili's decision to pay the full bride price is not based on heterosexual love but rather on the notion that he "did not want to go through life thinking that [he] owed Chief Nanga money" (148). Like Greene's novel, A Man of the People portrays women as objects needed to facilitate the emotions flowing between men.
14 In light of the fact that Sedgwick's theory fits so well in an analysis of both of these novels, the question of authorial motivation is inherently raised. One might ask why these two authors with clearly different political backgrounds and agendas would set up literary structures that reinforce the same gender hierarchy. I believe that the answer to this question lies in the homosocial bonds which emerge in the works. Both authors ultimately show male rivals involved in heated battles over masculinity and patriarchy. Sedgwick claims that in any male dominated society there is a special relationship between male homosocial desire and the structures for maintaining and transmitting patriarchal power. She explains that the disciplinary use of "homophobia, ideological homosexuality, or some [...] combination of the two" serves as a way for institutions or governments to structure society (25). Alan Sinfield, in The Wilde Century, reiterates this notion by describing how deep prejudices emerged against homosexuals when effeminacy and queerness become virtually synonymous in the twentieth century (62). Feminizing homosexuality was a way to "demasculize" the homosexual man and promote a dominant image of heterosexuality. Sedgwick's theory undoubtedly links patriarchal power to the promotion of a powerful, masculine image which only heightens itself with the oppression of the female.
15 In The Quiet American, there are many instances when the competition between Pyle and Fowler emerges as a struggle to own a masculine image. Part of the reason that Fowler is so upset with Pyle is that the American's very young, vibrant image is a threat to his own waning youth and sexuality. Fowler puts into words his self consciousness as he claims: "I saw myself as he [Pyle] saw me, a man of middle age, with eyes a little bloodshot, beginning to put on weight, ungraceful in love…less innocent" (40). Ultimately, Fowler's narration presents the reader with a view of one man's internal struggle to own a strong, masculine image. William Bonney's argument in "Politics, Perception, and Gender in Conrad's Lord Jim and Greene's The Quiet American," highlights how Fowler "generates narratives" in a way that is "masculine [...] and obsessional" (114). Although Fowler tries to convince the reader that his destruction of Pyle is ethically motivated, he cannot truly mask the feelings of envy, jealousy and fading masculinity that drive his actions. The following passage is a moment when Fowler's objectives become very apparent; Fowler tells Pyle:
I've reached the age when sex isn't the problem so much as old age and death. I wake up with these in mind and not a woman's body. I don't want to be alone in my last decade [...]. [I]f Phuong left me, would I have the energy to find another? (104-105)
Fowler reveals that his competitive obsession with Pyle over Phuong is about proving his masculinity and preserving his status rather than a real desire for the woman. Masculinity is a large component, if not the defining component, of the rivalry between the two men in this novel.