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Chapter 8
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
Obi soon finds that his office job is not as unenjoyable as he thought it would be, as he rarely interacts with Mr. Green. He mainly works alongside Marie Tomlinson, an English secretary who’s extremely friendly to him—though Obi suspects that she’s only trying to gain his confidence so that she can catch him somehow slipping up.
Obi’s inherent suspicions regarding Marie Tomlinson speak to the environment of colonial oversight in which he was raised, specifically recalling the threatening figure of Mr. Jones, who went out of his way to catch children acting improperly. Experience has taught Obi that White people are constantly surveilling Black Nigerians like Obi, whom they unfairly assume to be corrupt.
Themes
One day, an Ibo man named Mr. Mark comes to see Obi in his office. He promptly tries to bribe Obi to ensure that his sister receive special consideration for an upcoming scholarship to England. Obi, suspecting Marie Tomlinson is spying on him, makes a point of loudly dismissing Mr. Mark’s overtures and sending him on his way. Obi feels elated by having proven his backbone, but he soon worries that refusing the bribe may cause as many problems as accepting it.
At home, Obi takes stock of his finances: his situation is dire, with many bills outstanding. Mr. Mark’s sister Elsie Mark arrives unannounced at his flat, and Obi invites her inside. She explains her family’s grim financial situation and pleads again for his help with the scholarship. Obi reaffirms that he cannot make any promises, although privately he sympathizes with her. Obi knows the massive difference having a university degree makes in Nigeria.
The narration implies that Elise has come to Obi’s house to offer him sexual favors in exchange for a scholarship. Obi here has a chance to prove to himself his own moral integrity in a one-on-one situation without Marie Tomlinson eavesdropping, and he is successful in that endeavor.
Themes
Clara arrives unexpectedly and acts coldly to Elsie Mark, suspecting that she is Obi’s mistress. Obi drives Elsie home and then clears up Clara’s misconceptions by explaining the real story. Clara suggests that Obi should have taken Mr. Mark’s bribe, leaving Obi wondering what he should have done.
Clara’s openness to the idea of taking a bribe only reinforces Obi’s inner turmoil: it was easy to take a strong idealistic stance against bribery when he was a student, but now that he’s surrounded by it, he fears that interrupting its course may cause problems of its own.
Themes
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