Chinua Achebe s No Longer At Ease - 1383 Words

Nick Polanosky SS110 9:15 MWF Book Review on Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease Throughout life there is chaos and calm, ups and downs, good fortune and seemingly insurmountable challenges. For the majority of life, it is chaotic but controlled; you deal with issues as they come, and occasionally good things happen and give your mind a break. Obi’s fortune is good for most of his life; he gets the first scholarship from Umuofia and studies literature in England before coming home and pursuing a job in the civil service. Eventually things settle down and he ends up stuck in the middle. Although he has a good job that pays very well, he has debts to pay and an unhealthy mother. His fiancà ©e is an Oso, an outcast and he cannot get the approval†¦show more content†¦Obi worked in a European Post job on the Civil Service’s Scholarship Board, under the supervision of Mr. Green. Early on, he commits himself to honesty and integrity, rejecting a monetary bribe from the brother of a scholarship applicant and also rejecting the applicant herself fr om bribing him with her body. He maintains this mentality for as long as he can, but once things start going wrong, he has second thoughts. He ends up with serious financial problems and has to borrow money in order to pay his debts; â€Å"Digging a new pit to fill up and old one† (p.124). Because of his financial difficulties and the sudden problems which arise with the death of his mother and the loss of Clara, he begins questioning his ideals and has a change of heart. During his grief he certainly has an identity crisis, and gives in to the temptations. He begins to take bribes from people in order to pay his debts, in contrast with his die-hard honesty from earlier on. He eventually realizes that he was doing the wrong thing and vows to stop taking bribes, but one more would be okay. It happened to contain marked bills and proved his guilt, so just one more was too little too late to prevent the inevitable tragic end to Obi’s story. No Longer at Ease is almost a t extbook Shakespearean tragedy. Obi (â€Å"Tragic Hero†) is in an elevated position as a university-educated man with a government job. His fatal flaw (taking bribes) is hinted at early in the book, before flashing