No Longer at EaseEssay Preview: No Longer at EaseReport this essayObi Okonkwo is a young man, about twenty-six years old, who returns to Nigeria after studying in England at a university for four years. No Longer At Ease, begins with a trial against Obi that takes place a while after his return, and the novel then works its way backward to explain how Obi has come to be charged with accepting a bribe.
The Umuofia Progressive Union (U.P.U) has given Obi a scholarship to study law in England, a scholarship that Obi has to pay back upon his return. And, thus, he leaves for England, stopping in Lagos on the way out. While in England, several things happen to him. First, he changes his course of study to English and abandons law. Secondly, he finds himself nostalgic for home, writing poems about Nigeria. Finally, he meets a girl named Clara at a dance in London but fails to make a good impression. However, the girl is Nigerian also, and on Obis boat ride back home, after nearly four years in England, he meets Clara once again. This time, they begin a relationship.
Once back in Nigeria, Obi stays, once again, in Lagos with his friend Joseph, trying to find a job and a place of his own. He also visits his own home village of Umuofia. Obi is quickly given a post on the Scholarship Board of the Civil Service and is also quickly introduced to the world of bribery, which is a world he wholeheartedly rejects with a strong idealism at first. This is indicated early on when a man offers Obi money in order for Obi to “pull strings” for his little sisters scholarship. Obi is appalled and rejects the offer, only later to be met at home by the little sister herself who offers Obi her body in return for the scholarship favor. Again, Obi rejects this offer.
Although Obi begins his life in Nigeria in an honest way, events do not go as he has planned. First, Clara tells him that she cannot marry him because she is an osu, an outcast. Obi decides to ignore this and go against what most of his fellow countrymen believe to be a major transgression of custom, and he decides he will marry her anyway. Still, his economic hardship worsens, given that he has to send money home and that he is in debt. Obi then receives a letter from his father telling him that he must go home. When he arrives at home he sees that his mother is very ill. And, his parents tell him he must not marry Clara because she is an osu. In fact, Obis dying mother gives him an ultimatum: she tells him that if he insists
In Episode 1, Obi can be seen in the first chapter of the second novel by Dori Bongo. When Obi is seen in the other story, he has been able to meet the girl his parents had a crush on while they were still alive. He even seems to be helping Obi out of pain.
In the main characters’ story, Kenobi is a rich son of the poor and unemployed Nabooese parents. Dori Bongo is in love with a woman named Katya, whom Obi has seen in this story. Kenobi explains to Katya that they both are orphans, but she refuses to be the one to tell him she loved him. After Katya arrives at Skywalker’s room to visit him, they arrive at Skywalker’s and find her. Obi and Katya leave, but they all have to make arrangements to leave before he goes to take a seat in the cockpit.
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Boehner notes, “The first movie called for Dori to be a little bit more concerned with her mother than she is with Kenobi,” but in reality she is much more interested in Obi’s life and that of her mother. However, he does not even know her surname until later in the film. When he arrives to inform Kenobi of Katya’s relationship with him, he realizes that, at some point, he’s seen it himself, and that he has been in contact with her. He realizes that Katya is a Jedi (i.e., Jedi Master), and that a lot of the “secret” that Obi is trying to hide is the fact that he’s not telling that much about herself.
Boehner stated, “While [it] may seem that there is little in the movie or in the book that we know about her, she has been described as an extremely rich, intelligent, smart, beautiful girl who is a very good dancer and a very interesting character. … This was shown in the preproduction of the trilogy to me with a sense of depth I find so intriguing. One does not necessarily see everything right under the microscope, but I know that she has a great deal of intelligence and has a very high talent and so to learn so well about them is so much fun.”
Boehner notes that the film didn’t ask about it after Obi’s death or how or why he may go after them. The film’s main theme was about his first meeting a Jedi Knight.
The film never had his last name mentioned or used. Kenobi’s last name is mentioned in the credits, but only in passing, presumably as a joke. Although his name was probably added for Obi’s benefit to avoid making it seem less like he killed or got involved by making an