How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"The guests then said their farewells to Obi, many of them repeating all the advice that he had already been given. They shook hands with him and as they did so they pressed their presents into his palm, to buy a pencil with, or an exercise book or a loaf of bread for the journey, a shilling there and a penny there – substantial presents in a village where money was so rare, where men and women toiled from year to year to wrest a meager living from an unwilling and exhausted soil. (1.51)
The men and women of Umuofia may suffer from poverty, but they are generous with their gifts when Obi departs for England. These kinsmen are investing in Obi, hoping he will help lift their village out of poverty when he returns with a college education.
Quote #2
It was from one of these soldiers that Obi had his first picture of Lagos.
"There is no darkness there," he told his admiring listeners, "because at night the electric shines like the sun, and people are always walking about, that is, those who want to walk. If you don't want to walk you only have to wave your hand and a pleasure car stops for you." His audience made sounds of wonderment. Then by way of digression he said: "If you see a white man, take off your hat for him. The only thing he cannot do is mold a human being." (2.3-4)
The soldier paints a world of privilege, and highlights things that the rural citizens of Nigeria are lacking. We can see that urban citizens have greater privileges and access to more of the luxuries of modernization than rural citizens; but we also see that whites rule society.
Quote #3
They drove for awhile in silence through narrow overcrowded streets. "I can't understand why you should choose your dressmaker from the slums." Clara did not reply. Instead she started humming "Che sarà sarà."( 2.19)
Early in his career in the civil service, Obi has assumed the values of upper-class society, while Clara still appreciates a bargain. (This will show up later, when it becomes clear that Obi has no clue how to manage his money, while Clara is adept at making her salary go a long way.) There is some irony in the song Clara hums – "Whatever will be will be" – His original name, which we know fromjuxtaposed with Obi's pretensions. Perhaps she already envisions that their relationship will end, since she is osu and Obi is already firmly entrenched in Igbo values.
Quote #4
"But take one of these old men. He probably left school thirty years ago in Standard Six. He has worked steadily to the top through bribery—an ordeal by bribery. To him the bribe is natural. He gave it and he expects it. Our people say that if you pay homage to the man on top, others will pay homage to you when it is your turn to be on top. Well, that is what the old men say." (2.31)
The corruption in Nigeria can partly be explained by the fact that Igbo society is built on a system of homage and patronage. These values seem to have been carried over into the Western system.
Quote #5
He spoke of the great honor Obi had brought to the ancient town of Umuofia, which could not join the comity of other towns in their march towards political irredentism, social equality, and economic emancipation.
"The importance of having one of our sons in the vanguard of this march of progress is nothing short of axiomatic." (4.15-16)
The town of Umuofia clearly pins its hopes for economic power and social status in the education of its young men; the example of Obi Okonkwo is a case in point. What is interesting is that it seems like a version of socialism helps individuals advance within the larger capitalist society; in order for everyone to rise in the social class, they must invest in individuals.
Quote #6
Why did Clara insist that he must not tell his people about her yet? Could it be that she had not quite made up her mind to marry him? That could hardly be. She was as anxious as himself to be formally engaged, only she said he should not go to the expense of buying a ring until he had got a job. Perhaps she wanted to tell her people first. But if so, why all the mystery? Why had she not simply said that she was going to consult her people? Or maybe she was not as guileless as he had assumed and was using this suspense to bind him more strongly to her. Obi examined each possibility in turn and rejected it. (5.46)
In his first realization that there is something Clara hasn't told him, Obi begins to get suspicious; he just can't believe that his beloved would be deceitful.
Quote #7
"As a man comes into this world," he [Ogbuefi Odogwu] often said, "so will he go out of it. When a titled man dies, his anklets of title are cut so that he will return as he came. The Christians are right when they say that as it was in the beginning it will be in the end." 5.89
Though hierarchical structures may be part of Igbo (and colonial society), there are no distinctions made among individuals when death comes calling.
Quote #8
"What the matter, Clara? Tell me." He was no longer unruffled. There was a hint of tears in his voice.
"I am an osu," she wept. Silence. She stopped weeping and quietly disengaged herself form him. Still he said nothing.
"So you see we cannot get married," she said, quite firmly, almost gaily—a terrible kind of gaiety. Only the tears showed she had wept.
"Nonsense!" said Obi. He shouted it almost, as if by shouting it now he could wipe away those seconds of silence, when everything had seemed to stop, waiting in vain for him to speak. (7.62-64)
Obi has fallen in love with a woman who can never be part of his social class – she belongs to the lowest possible class, an untouchable caste. And though he denies that it bothers him, a moment of silence betrays uncertainty on his part.
Quote #9
Obi felt very sorry for her [Elsie Mark]. She was obviously an intelligent girl who had set her mind, like so many other young Nigerians, on university education. And who could blame them? Certainly not Obi. It was rather sheer hypocrisy to ask if a scholarship was as important as all that or if a university education was worth it. Every Nigerian knew the answer. It was yes.
A university degree was the philosopher's stone. It transmuted a third-class clerk on one hundred and fifty a year into a senior civil servant on five hundred and seventy, with car and luxuriously furnished quarters at nominal rent. And the disparity in salary and amenities did not tell even half the story. To occupy a "European post" was second only to actually being a European. (9.72-73.)
Education is the key to belonging to the new social class. To be considered a European would be enormously attractive. For sixty plus years, Europeans had controlled business, politics, education, and religion in Nigeria; their status was built at the expense of the Igbo people.