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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in No Longer at Ease, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Corruption
Western Influence and Alienation
Language, Literature, and Communication
Prejudice and Discrimination
Summary
Analysis
In Lagos, Nigeria, in the 1950s, a young Igbo man named Obi Okonkwo sits in court, where he is being tried for bribery charges. His case has become the talk of the town, and the courtroom is packed with spectators. For weeks, Obi has been “steeling himself” for the condemnation he expects to receive, and he affects an attitude of indifference. This attitude comes naturally, as his senses have been dulled by recent events: his mother Hannah has recently died, and his relationship with a girl named Clara has ended. Yet when the judge, William Galloway, convicts Obi and then expresses his confusion and disappointment at seeing such a promising and educated young man commit a crime like this, Obi’s façade cracks and tears come to his eyes.
The novel begins at the end of Obi’s saga, with the trial that symbolizes his fall from grace. This structural choice suggests a tragic inevitability to Obi’s fate, while the choice to withhold information about Obi has done to end up in this dire situation builds narrative tension. As will shortly become clear, the narrative will go back in time, and the entire novel will work up to this point at which it begins.
Themes
Mr. Green, Obi’s European boss, expressed similar disappointment in Obi a few weeks earlier. In the aftermath of Obi’s conviction, Mr. Green sits at the bar with a man from the British Council and muses that Obi’s actions were totally predictable. Mr. Green expresses his cynicism about the character and capacities of African people in general, citing millennia of living in hostile climatic conditions as an explanation for their thorough “corruption.”
Mr. Green contradicts himself when he expresses his disappointment in Obi’s conviction—only to later claim that he finds Obi’s criminal behavior totally predictable in retrospect. His contradictory statements reveal his underlying racism, namely his bigoted view that all African people are fundamentally corrupt. At the same time, readers see how Mr. Green, a White European man, uses that racist stereotype to absolve himself of any responsibility for Obi’s behavior, placing all the blame on Obi—even though Mr. Green’s own racist logic would suggest that Mr. Green should have expected Obi to engage in criminal behavior from the start. No Longer at Ease takes place in the late 1950s, in the final years before Nigeria’s independence from the British Empire. Mr. Green’s unrestrained racism gives readers a sense of the rampant discrimination Obi must deal with as a Black man in Nigeria under British colonial rule.
Themes
At a meeting of the Umuofia Progressive Union, an organization of emigrants from Umuofia, Obi’s home village, members gather to pray for their people. Despite some initial dissent, the group voted to pay Obi’s legal fees, out of loyalty to a fellow villager. Now, members lament Obi’s conviction. The Union formed six or seven years ago to pool funds to send an Umuofian abroad to study (the group calls this a “scholarship,” though it expects the recipient to pay it back). Obi, a precocious youth, was the first candidate the group chose. He was supposed to use the funds to go to England to study law so that he could aid his tribe in land disputes when he returned. Obi, however, switched to studying English literature upon his arrival in England.
This meeting gives readers insight into Obi’s background and trajectory, highlighting the key role that community support has played in granting Obi opportunities for upward mobility. This underscores the gravity of Obi’s fall from grace and the disappointment he has caused among his community. In deliberately going against the Umuofia Progressive Union’s wishes and studying literature instead of law, Obi prioritizes his own passions over the needs of his community, betraying the expectations of his people and returning from England with no skills that could benefit them. His choice isn’t outrageously selfish in itself, but it does highlight how Nigeria’s status as a British colony limits Obi’s opportunities. With Nigerians’ quality of life dependent on their ability to succeed within a colonial government fundamentally biased against them, Obi isn’t totally free to pursue what merely interests him: he must also consider how his choices will serve his people and Nigeria as a whole.
Themes
The scene shifts to Obi’s going-away party, a grand affair. Attendants offer impassioned prayers and speeches on Obi’s behalf. There is also a lavish reception, which Obi’s spendthrift father, Isaac, funded. The gathering ends with the Reverend Ikedi exhorting Obi not to give in to sensual temptations in England as other Nigerians have in the past. As the party breaks up, the villagers give Obi what little money they can for his travels.
This first flashback establishes that the narrative will not proceed in strict chronological order. The scene again emphasizes the extent to which Obi’s people are depending on him. Given the Progressive Union’s intentions for Obi to study law so that he can help them negotiate land disputes with the colonial government, it’s not an exaggeration to say that their future is in Obi’s hands. This, along with the Reverend’s warning against temptations, take on dramatic irony in light of Obi’s eventual downfall.
Themes
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