Metaphors In The Columbian Exchange

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In this passage, Achebe foreshadows the colonization of Niger using a locust invasion as a meaphor. Much like the locusts who “settled on every tree and on every blade of grass” (Achebe 56), the white men descended upon Niger. The author also uses a simile to describe a mass of locusts “like a boundless sheet of black cloud” (56) in order to show their abundance. This simile is a symbol for how defenseless the natives were against the colonists because the natives could only watch as the foreigners took over their land. In the last sentence, Achebe writes of the locusts being so abundant that they broke tree branches with their weight. This is used to symbolize how tribal customs were destroyed and replaced with the beliefs of the settlers

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