No Longer at Ease (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Chinua Achebe
- First Published: 1960
- Type of Work: Social chronicle
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: Nigeria
- Principal Characters: Obi Okonkwo, Joseph, The Honorable Sam Okoli, Christopher, Clara, The Reverend Mr. Samuel Ikedi, Mr. Green, Isaac Nwoye Okonkwo
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: 1950’s, Culture, Values, Africa or Africans, Tradition, Power, personal or social, Politics, Colonies or colonization, Race, Education or educators, Corruption, Government, Clans, Urbanization
- Locales: Nigeria
The Novel
No Longer at Ease opens and closes at the trial of Obi Okonkwo, a young civil servant in the colonial Nigerian government who is accused of accepting bribes. Within this frame, the bulk of the novel is a retrospective look at Obi’s progress from the remote village of Umuofia in southeastern Nigeria, where he is the star pupil in the missionary school, to an English university, where he earns a degree with honors in literature, and then to a position with the Nigerian Civil Service in Lagos, where he finally succumbs to the prevalent practice of bribery and is...
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