Unlike his great-grandfather, the Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart, Obi is a passive man. Whereas Okonkwo aggressively struggled to make his way in the world and impose his will upon it, Obi is indecisive, unable to free himself from the conflicting influences of the people and events around him.

To a large extent, this passivity is a result of Obi’s alienation. He has been shaped by the traditional Igbo culture of Umuofia, the Christianity of his father, the idealism of English literature, and the corrupt sophistication of Lagos, but he is at ease nowhere. As a child in Umuofia, he dreams of the sparkling lights of Lagos. In England, he writes pastoral visions of an idealized Nigeria. Disillusioned by the corruption of Lagos, he returns to his home village only to witness a lorry driver attempting to bribe a policeman and to be greeted by his parents’ rejection of his proposed marriage. Obi naively tries to maintain the idea of his own integrity as a detribalized, rational, thoroughly modern man, but his reintegration into Nigeria is a failure, because he is unable to assimilate successfully any of the competing cultures through which he passes. He finds it impossible to mediate the conflicting duties that are thrust upon him, and his steady progress in the novel is toward despair and withdrawal.

Obi’s paralyzing cultural ambivalence leaves him hanging between the traditional Igbo acceptance of communal needs and the European desire for self-realization. Obi finds his financial and social debts to the clan stifling, but he also recognizes the vacuous self-aggrandizement that can result from a preoccupation with self. Other characters provide various examples of accommodation, but none of these can work for Obi. The Honorable Sam Okoli gives himself over completely to the game of corruption, skillfully using bribery to amass money and power. Obi’s father evidences a contrasting accommodation when he atavistically ignores his Christian faith and asserts the pragmatic importance of osu.

Like a diminished version of his great-grandfather, Obi is crushed by cultural forces beyond his control, but the pettiness and ineptitude of his crime make him a tragicomic hero. Like the onlookers at the trial who cannot fathom why Obi did it, the reader is puzzled by the ironies of Obi’s downfall. His innocence makes him a criminal; his coveted education does not provide him with wisdom; the support of his clansmen increases his sense of loneliness.

Michael Obiajulu (Obi) Okonkwo

Michael Obiajulu (Obi) Okonkwo (oh-bee-ah-JEW-lew oh-KOHN -kwoh), a twenty-five-year-old Nigerian civil servant. A brilliant student, Obi received the first scholarship loan given by the Umuofia Progressive Union (UPU), whose members taxed themselves harshly to provide someone from their native village with an English education. He has graduated with honors but is less than successful in meeting expectations when he returns from London. His mission background and European values make him an alien in his own land. Naïve and idealistic, he is disillusioned by the contrast between corrupt Lagos and the idyllic Nigeria about which he wrote poetry in England. The UPU is equally disappointed in Obi. He lacks the superficial characteristics that they consider to be byproducts of an education. In addition, Obi is self-willed. At school, he studied English, not law. Now he wishes to take an unsuitable wife. Although he immediately gets a job, Obi finds the demands of its accompanying lifestyle difficult to meet. He dutifully wishes to give financial help to his family, and he must also repay his loan. He anticipates no problems in remaining aloof from the bribery practices so prevalent in public...