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A Mother Torn Apart

Posted by michellex3 , Sunday, March 25, 2012 9:15 PM

Chapters 8-13             Throughout these chapters the history between Okonkwo and his wife, Ekwefi, stuck out to me and I felt pity for them. It was a touching story in which the reader could empathize with the character, Ekwefi. After Ekwefi had her first child, it died due to an illness. She had a few children after and each and every single one of them died due to an illness before they even got to turn 2 years old. After the first and second deaths she started to become a bitter woman. Okonkwo’s other wife had had three strong and healthy boys and Ekwefi could not even be happy for her. Instead she envied her and didn’t share in the celebration for the children.            Ekwefi would give her children symbolic names such as “Onwumbiko” meaning, ‘Death, I implore you’. She named another child “Ozoemena” meaning, ‘May it not happen again’. The next child was “Onwuma” which meant, ‘Death may please himself’’(Achebe 77). All that was left to do was for Okonkwo to go to the medicine man that told him that the child was obanje, which was a wicked child who entered their mothers’ wombs again following their death. It was just a recurring painful cycle.            After Ezinma was born, it changed Ekwefi for the better and she appreaciated and loved her daughter more then anything. She always made sure to take good care of her despite Okonkwos wishes to not feed her eggs for example. I can really empathize with Ekwefi because I can only imagine how difficult it must be to have to lose child after child and just have the feeling of giving up. I was resulted in feeling very happy for Ekwefi after the reading because she finally got stabilization in her life and she got the child she always wanted.