Language is “a network of systems or interrelated sets of options for making meaning” (Halliday 1994, p. Systemic Functional Grammar is a model developed by Michael Halliday in which language is seen from a functional perspective.
It particularly shows that linguistic analysis and the tools of literary criticism can complement each other in the interpretation of literature. The study has implications for studies on Anthills of the Savannah, stylistic analysis, and further research. Through Chris, Achebe urges the enlightened but apathetic citizen to rise up and transform his society through struggle. This narrative and linguistic configuration of Chris’s characterisation together with the symbolic intervention he makes in saving a girl from abuse towards the end of the novel realises the theme of struggle and change. The study demonstrates that the systematic variation in narrative situations and transitivity patterns in which Chris is cast across three key passages in the plot of the narrative shows a transformation in his character, from powerlessness and ineffectiveness through perplexity and fear to self-reformation and bravery. The present study sheds new meaning on the thematic concern of the novel by exploring the interaction between narrative situation, transitivity patterning, and symbolism, on the one hand, and the characterisation of Chris (one of the protagonists) and the themes of struggle and change, on the other hand. Critics of the novel have emphasised that it represents Achebe’s most articulate ideology on the socio-political situation of post-colonial Africa, in general, and Nigeria, in particular.
The present study is meant to contribute to this growing literature by exploring Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, primarily from a systemic functional linguistics perspective. "Following insights from stylistic studies on European and American literature as well as few earlier attempts on African literature, there has been a recent growing interest in the stylistic analysis of the African novel.
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