How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Oshia was looking into the darkness as they sat side by side, not touching, but Adim could feel him resenting his questions. "What help can one give with only twelve pounds a month? That is what they pay now, even with a good Cambridge school-leaving certificate."
Adim did not know what to say. It sounded a lot of money to him. The school he dreamed of attending was only six pounds a year for day boys; if his brother could earn twelve pounds and ten shillings a month, then they would be rich. That was a great deal of money, he told his brother enthusiastically; "What will you do with all that money? I'm not sure our father earns up tot hat."
Oshia had laughed again. (16.25-27)
Oshia has already absorbed the values of his wealthy classmates, and he doesn't see how he can possibly help his family, even though his monthly salary upon graduating will be almost 3/5 of his father's yearly salary (which we know from earlier in the book to be twenty pounds a year).
Quote #8
Nnaife did not go to see Oshia off on the day he left for the United States. Nnu Ego, Okpo, Adim and several of their friends went to the airport to wave him goodbye. It left an emptiness in Nnu Ego's heart that was hard to communicate. Please God, teach him to be used to being alone, for a person like Oshia who put ambition first at the expense of his family was always a loner, Nnu Ego thought as she returned home dry-eyed. Friends and well-wishers were surprised to see that she did not cry; and when they predicted that soon her son would be back and driving her about in a big car, she knew that they had all missed the point. She was not destined to be such a mother. She realized that now. Her joy was to know that she had brought up her children when they had started out with nothing, and that those same children might rub shoulders one day with the great men of Nigeria. That was the reward she expected. (17.43)
The rewards of education should be enjoying wealth, but Nnu Ego knows that her only reward will be appreciating her children's prestige. It will never be her prestige as well.