Ezinma is the daughter of Okonkwo and his second wife Ekwefi. Ezinma was the only one out of ten children that lived beyond infancy. She was expected to die at a young age, but that did not happen. She is now a young teenager and the center of her mother’s world. Ezinma and her mother have a very strong relationship. Ekwefi adores her daughter, along with Okonkwo. Okonkwo’s favorite child is Ezinma because she understands him better than his other children. Okonkwo also wishes that Ezinma was a boy because she would have been the perfect son. She is very strong willed and has a lot of responsibility. She helps out around the obi that are not necessarily her job. Achebe describes when Ezinma is helping out by building a fire on her own. He says, “Ezinma went outside and brought some sticks from a huge bundle of firewood. She broke them into little pieces across the sole of her foot and began to build a fire, blowing it with her breath” (Achebe 41). Ezinma is a hardworker and shows no fear, like her father. Even after being taken away to the cave to meet with the Oracle of Hills, she woke up the next morning and went on with her life acting as if nothing is wrong. Ezinma is admired by both of her parents because she has a good work ethic and does not let anything get in her way.
2 comments:
Aggreing with Vanilla's original post, Ezinma, is one of the most respected and admired out of all the children by her parents, especially her father, Okonkwo. Okonkwo and Ezinma have a special bond since her childhood, as he often states that she should have been born a boy. That bond is soon carried into Ezinma's young adulthood as in later chapters we see Okonkwo take a great particular interest in Ezinma. For example, in Chapter 21, it states, "Okonkwo was very lucky in his daughters. He never stopped regretting that Ezinma was a girl. Of all his children she alone understood his every mood. A bond of sympathy had grown between them as years had passed." This quote reveals how avidly Okonkwo felt about Ezinma, and it seems that without her he might not have even survived his tragic exile.
It is completely true that Ezinma is a strong willed individual. Okonkwo enjoys being around her, but he often wishes that she is a boy because she shares the qualities of a boy.Ezinma and her mother do not have a typical mother-daughter relationship; instead Ezinma calls her mother by her first name. Her mother, in return, adores Ezinma and she is the center of her world. This is because her mother, Ekwefi, has lost nine children perviously at infancy. Both parents extremely love Ezinma because she is not fazed by the hardships in her life.
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