Achebe's Exile

I have read this novel before and remember being struck by the same question: how personal is this story? Does any one character in the novel represent Achebe? I do not know for sure but if I were to guess I would think that it is Nwoye. Nwoye leaves his family and all things familiar in search of something new. This seems similar to Achebe's writing of the novel and exile from Nigeria. Achebe clearly has very mixed feelings about tribal life and very strong feelings about the colonization of Nigeria. Perhaps however, he is not a character in the novel but rather in the novel itself.