Resumo de No Longer At Ease

Chinua Achebe here tells the

story of a young man form the eastern region of Nigeria.
The

story is set in pre-independence Nigeria. The young man,
Obi

Okonkwo is the grandson of Okonkwo, a major character in

Chinua Achebe's earlier novel titled 'THINGS FALL
APART'Obi

Okonkwo comes back from London a graduate of English. He

owes his educational expenses to the Umuofia
Progressive

Union. He is to pay the loan back in monthly

installments when he starts working.It will take him
some

two years to pay off his debt. He finds himself back in
a

corruption ridden society. He however makes his stand
clear;

he will not be any part of it. He soon gets a job as the

secretary to the scholarship board. As a senior civil

servant, he gets a car and a beautiful apartment and a

handsome pay package. His relationship with clara, a
girl he

had met earlier at a dance in London and on the ship on

which he had travelled back to Lagos receives a jolt as
she

announces to him that she is an OSU(a descendant of
someone

who had dedicated himself to a particular God in order
to

escape death or debt). Marriage between the OSU caste
and

the non-OSU was forbidden(and is still frowned at by so
many

Igbo people till date). He assures her the issue will
not

stand between them. They get engaged in no time. He
storms out

of a meeting of the Umuofia Progressive Union at the
union

president's mention of his proposed marriage to 'a woman
of

doubtful ancestry'. His friend Joseph had betrayed his

confidence. He soon finds himself in debt as a result of

heavy responsibilities. His plight would have been
better

had he not refused the acceptance of his application for
the

postponement of his loan repayment's start date by the
union out of sheer

pride. clara soon breaks off their engagement despite
Obi's

having convinced his father to allow him marry an OSU.
She

also turns out pregnant and he has to borrow money from
a

mutual friend to get an abortion. Clara refuses to see
him

anymore. Obi's mother , whe had promised to kill herself

should her son marry an OSU, SOON DIES. He does not
attend

her funeral as he is so heartbroken of her death,
Clara's desertion, and his financial problems

but he does send all the money he can. Members of

Umuofia Progressive Union come to sympathise( some
mocking him) with him at

home and his friend Joseph saves the day by providing
drinks

for the entertainment of Obi's unexpected visitors.

Another scholarship season comes around and unlike the
last

season when he refused bribes being offered by would-be

beneficiaries , he takes the bribes offered, in cash and

from women, in kind, wounding his conscience each time
he

did. He soon falls into a trap set for him, on taking

another bribe and he is on his way to jail. Umuofia

Progressive union will try its possible best to ensure
Obi

does not go to jail. Neither the judge presiding ever
his

case , Mr. Green , Obi's boss nor the men of Umuofia
could

comprehend what could have led a young man of Obi's

education and brilliant promise into this.

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