No Longer at Ease
No Longer at Ease (1960) It is the story of an Igbo man, Obi Okonkwo, who leaves his village for an education in Britain and then a job in the Nigerian colonial civil service, but is conflicted between his African culture and Western lifestyle and ends up taking a bribe
Quotes
edit- We are sending you to learn book. Enjoyment can wait. Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world.”
- Mr. Ikedi, 12
- That was Obi’s mistake Number One. Everybody expected a young man from England to be impressively turned-out.”
- Narrator, 36
- Real tragedy is never resolved. It goes on hopelessly forever. Conventional tragedy is too easy. The hero dies and we feel a purging of the emotions. A real tragedy takes place in a corner, in an untidy spot, to quote W.H. Auden.”
- Obi, 47
- Greatness is now in the things of the white man."
- Odogwu, 62
- In that short question he said in effect that Obi’s mission-house upbringing and European education had made him a stranger in his country –the most painful thing one could say to Obi."
- Obi, 82
- "It was clear he loved Africa, but only Africa of a kind: the Africa of Charles, the messenger, the Africa of his gardenboy and steward boy. He must have come originally with an ideal –to bring light into the heart of darkness..."
- Narrator, 121
- "Mr. Okonkwo believed utterly and completely in the things of the white man. And the symbol of white man’s power was the written word, or better still, the printed word."
- Narrator, 144
- Obi wanted to rush out of his car and shout: “Stop. Let’s go and get married now,” but he couldn’t and didn’t. The doctor’s car drove away.
- Narrator, 169
- What would be the point of going to Umuofia? She would have been buried by the time he got there anyway.
- Narrator, 183
- Everybody wondered why. The learned judge, as we have seen, could not comprehend how an educated young man and so on and so forth."
- Narrator, 194
- He said life was like a bowl of wormwood which one sips ... without end.
- Obi, Chapter 5
- Greatness is now in the things of the white man.
- Ogbuefi Odogwu, Chapter 5
- All the same they must go. This no be them country.
- Sam Okoli, Chapter 7
- Take this matter of twenty pounds ... which ... was the root cause of all his troubles.
- Narrator, Chapter 17
- His full name was Obiajulu—'the mind at last is at rest.'
- Narrator, Chapter 1
- I have tasted putrid flesh in the spoon.
- Obi, Chapter 2
- We are not heathens.
- Isaac Okonkwo, Chapter 6
- Mr. Green was famous for speaking his mind. He wiped his red face with the white towel on his neck. ‘The African is corrupt through and through.’”
- You know book, but this is no matter for book.
- Joseph, Chapter 7
- E no be like dat ... Him na gentleman. No fit take bribe.
- Joseph, Chapter 8
- Na so this world be.
- Clara, Chapter 9
- They were the good servants who had found perfect freedom.
- Narrator, Chapter 11
- Mr. Green was famous for speaking his mind. He wiped his red face with the white towel on his neck. ‘The African is corrupt through and through.
- (Chapter 1, Page 2)
- They wanted him to read law so that when he returned he would handle all their land cases against their neighbours. But when he got to England he read English; his self-will was not new.
- (Chapter 1, Page 4)
- In fact, some weeks ago when the trial first began, Mr. Green, his boss, who was one of the Crown witnesses, had also said something about a young man of great promise. And Obi had remained completely unmoved. Mercifully he had recently lost his mother, and Clara had gone out of his life. The two events following closely on each other had dulled his sensibility and left him a different man, able to look words like ‘education’ and ‘promise’ squarely in the face. But now when the supreme moment came he was betrayed by treacherous tears.
- (Chapter 1, Page 1)
