How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"How are the girls anyway? I am so bowed down with my own problems that I have not had the time to come and see them."
"Oh, they are in a convent school. They live there and come home only during holidays."
"Really?" Mama Abby cried. "Adaku, you have always surprised me. Those girls of yours may end up going to a college too."
"She wants them to and they will make it. I am beginning to think that there may be a future for educated women. I saw many young women teaching in schools. It would be really something for a woman to be able to earn some money monthly like a man," Nnu Ego said looking into the distance.
"But Kehinde and Taiwo are still at school, are they not?" Adaku asked.
"Oh, no, they only attended or a couple of years. We have Adim and Nnamdio to think of and, with Oshia's big school fees, we cannot afford fees for the twins. I think they can read a little. I personally do not regret it. They will be married in a few years. They can earn an added income by trading. The most important thing is for them to get good husbands," Nnu Ego said finally. (16.7-12)
Although Nnu Ego is beginning to see that equality between men and women might be achieved through education, it is not what she hopes for Taiwo, Kehinde, or her other daughters.
Quote #5
Nnu Ego went with Oshia to his new school in Warri. Her heart sank when they arrived. Here were the sons of very rich men, one could see from the cars that brought them. She called Oshia gently and said: "You must not go the way of these rich boys. They have so much money in their families. Son, I wish you did not have to come to this school, I wish you had chosen one of those in Lagos were things are cheaper and you meet ordinary people."
"I won't copy them, Mother. I will work hard. If I had stayed in Lagos, I don't think our home would have been conducive to my studies. There are so many quarrels over money, and me having to help selling this or that."
"You are not running away from your people, Oshia, are you?" (16.13-15)
Nnu Ego instinctively recognizes that the culture of the wealthy will estrange her son from his family. She doesn't yet realize that education will separate him from his traditional parents.
Quote #6
Some years later, Adim too wanted to go to secondary school.
"Your father is at the end of his tether now, and I can't possibly ask him to pay for your fees," Nnu Ego had to explain to him. "It would not be fair on him and on the others. He has made so much sacrifice for us, and you know that he does not find it easy to give. He surprised us all with Oshia's school fees. So if you pass into one of the local schools, I will try and meet your fees somehow; if not you will have to stay till you get to standard six and then go and learn a trade. They take young people as apprentices at the railways." (16.18-19)
The family is so strapped by Oshia's education that Nnu Ego suggests a different kind of education for Adim – learning a trade.