Road as Metaphor in Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper examines Joyce Cary's use of "road" as a metaphor in his novel, Mister Johnson (1937). Johnson is an "African poet," who yearns to be glorious but failed. The road in the novel symbolizes various aspects of Johnson's characteristics and the impact of white civilization on him. Johnson's creative power culminates at the moment of road construction; the destructive power at the murder of Gollup.
The road-building episode helps us to understand the nature of Johnson's character and his relationship with the others, especially with his superior Rudbeck. Rudbeck is rational and unimaginative in comparison with Johnson and yet both men's ideas are composed of an assortment of impressions and mannerisms picked up from others. Johnson is Rudbeck's alter-ego sharing same vision of glory as master road-builder. As a road is a medium to connect people, the two men reach a mement of true friendship but briefly.
Here the road in Fada stands for "an idea," "a symbol of European civilization." Johnson's active involvement in the road-construction symbolizes his creative imagination at work. The road-building becomes an African "revolution." Johnson's power of imagination also is both destructive as well as creative. Like the road, Johnson is the product of colonialism in Africa. He is new and also a stranger in the Fada town, who is deprived of his African heritage by education at a mission school. Joyce Cary questions indirectly about the young clerk's destiny. Thus the fate of the road parallels with Johnson's destiny as a poet and his relationship with the others, especially with the colonial officer, Rudbeck. Johnson fails to achieve a real sense of personal glory. As the newly-built road looking like a single knife cut seems immediately closing, it implies a sense of frustration and of futility. Johnson's failure and the futility of road also suggest the impending failure of British colonial rule in Africa.