Which quote from Things Fall Apart describes Ezinma?

The reader's impression of Ezinma is built up in several quotations from Things Fall Apart. These generally relate to Okonkwo's thoughts about his favorite child. Even when he is rebuking her for behaving like a boy, it is clear that Okonkwo prefers Ezinma to any of his sons, and that he wishes she had been born male, to provide him with a worthy heir. He tells Obierika:

If Ezinma had been a boy I would have been happier. She has the right spirit.

This shows not only that he prefers Ezinma to his sons, but that she has the virtues traditionally associated with masculinity in Umuofia: strength, courage, and decisiveness. Her personality, therefore, is similar to Oknonkwo's own. Later in the book, during Okonkwo's exile, this point is made directly:

Okonkwo was very lucky in his daughters. He never stopped regretting that Ezinma was a girl. Of all his children she alone understood his every mood. A bond of sympathy had grown between them as the years had passed.

Achebe then gives an example of this sympathy and of Ezinma's intelligence. Although she has many suitors during Okonkwo's exile, she refuses them all, and persuades her half-sister to do the same. This is because she understands that Okonkwo will be in a better position if he returns to Umuofia with two beautiful, marriageable daughters. Later, when Okonkwo is imprisoned, she rushes home immediately:

His daughter Ezinma had broken her twenty-eight day visit to the family of her future husband, and returned home when she heard that her father had been imprisoned, and was going to be hanged. As soon as she got home she went to Obierika to ask what the men of Umuofia were going to do about it. But Obierika had not been home since morning. His wives thought he had gone to a secret meeting. Ezinma was satisfied that something was being done.

It is in quotations such as this, rather than direct description, that Ezinma's character is revealed.

How does the Igbo culture affect Ezinma in Things Fall Apart?

In Chinua Achebe’s debut novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s daughter Ezinma is deeply affected by the norms, customs, and values of traditional Igbo culture. More specifically, as Okonkwo’s daughter, she is valued according to her ability to marry into a reputable family. Indeed, Okonkwo has a tremendous amount of influence in who she marries and why. He dictates that rather than marrying a respected man in Mbanta, she instead should save herself to marry an Umuofian man:

“Many young men and prosperous middle-aged men of Mbanta came to marry her. But she refused them all, because her father had called her one evening and said to her: 'There are many good and prosperous people here, but I shall be happy if you marry in Umuofia when we return home.' That was all he had said. But Ezinma had seen clearly all the thought and hidden meaning behind the few words” (173).

She is valued as a commodity, and a reflection on her father’s status. In her time in Mbanta, she was given the nickname “Crystal of Beauty.” This reinforces her marginalized position within Igbo culture as a commodity.

Okonkwo laments the fact that she was not born a boy, and this is yet another piece of evidence that shows that women in Igbo culture are undervalued. She has desirable traits that Okonkwo respects, but he still desperately wishes that she was a boy. Thus, Ezinma is affected by Igbo culture in much the same way as other women: she is regarded as a commodity and marginalized as a human being.