How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Nnu Ego and her new husband Amatokwu were very happy; yet Nnu Ego was surprised that, as the months passed, she was failing everybody. There was no child…
"I am sure the fault is on my side. You do everything right. How can I face my father and tell him that I have failed? I don't like going there these days because his wives always rush out to greet me hoping that I am already carrying a child. You can see the disappointment on their faces" (3.33; 36)
Nnu Ego believes that she is a failed woman because she cannot conceive a child in her first marriage.
Quote #5
But she was behaving in a curious way, almost as if she was doing some sort of acrobatic dance. Nwakusor wanted to look at closer quarters. He blasted the unceasing traffic, but his eyes never left the scene. He was extra careful after the shock he had earlier, not wishing to be knocked down just because he was going to look at a woman who was either mad or doing some kind of juju dance for her god. He was going to take his time. One shouldn't' be near death twice on the same morning.
His impatience was far from diminished as he saw from where he stood what the woman was actually trying to do. She was trying to jump into the lagoon! (5.16-17)
Nwakusor, who just escaped getting killed by a truck, recognizes that this woman is on the verge of death – even though he hasn't yet realized that she's trying to commit suicide. The final statement of the first paragraph suggests that being near death too often is bad luck.
Quote #6
The child, a girl, was lifeless. She was dead.
Nnu Ego stared at the picture she made with her dead daughter in horror. She felt like crying, but at the same time did not want to. She felt the loss of this little piece of humanity, this unfortunate little thing she had carried while climbing up to Zabo market, this thing she knew was probably being hurt as she had bent defiantly down to wash clothes for her sons. Oh, poor baby, she thought. I am sorry you are not staying; I am also glad that God has seen fit to take you back….
Then she started to feel guilty. Had she wanted the child to die—was that the interpretation of the slight relief she had experienced when she crawled to he dead child to check what sex it was? That it was a girl had lessened her sense of loss. Oh, God, she did not wish it. She would have been happy to have the child. God, please don't let her thoughts torment her so. Please God, give her something to hold on to, some faith to assure her that she deliberately had not killed her own child in her heart. (16.50-52)
Nnu Ego's life is so hard, she wonders if the joy she previously had in having children has deserted her. One more child would have made her life that much harder.