Point of View

In No Longer at Ease, author Chinua Achebe consistently adopts the third person omniscient point of view, but much of the novel is driven by dialog in the first person. The anonymous narrator feels sympathy for protagonist Obi Okonkwo but sees him as a callous, stubborn, opinionated young man who causes himself nearly as many problems as fate seems to drop upon him. The story opens with Obi sitting in court, about to be sentenced for accepting bribes. He has made himself numb over the weeks of confinement and trial. European commentators at the end of the trial consider that it is in the African character to fall in this way, while fellow Umuofians believe that Obi is simply too naive to do what all officials do in the safe, accepted fashion.

The narrator then shows how Obi comes to receive a scholarship to a coveted...