Breast Milk

In the book's early chapters, breast milk is a two-faceted symbol - of the experience of motherhood that Nnu Ego and other women are expected to both have and embrace and, when the milk is unreleased, of the pain that comes when the experience of motherhood, for whatever reason, is unfulfilled. As such, it is a metaphoric foreshadowing of the suffering to come for Nnu Ego and the other female characters who experience motherhood.

Sexual Interactions

For the male characters, sexual interactions with women represent power, status, and their responsibility to produce children. For the female character, sexual interactions primarily represent their lack of power and status, relative to men, and the expectation of their fertility. Also for at least two of the female characters (Ona and Adaku) making their enjoyment of such interactions abundantly clear is representative of their desire to gain the approval...