Ezinma is Okonkwo's eldest daughter and Ekwefi's only child to survive past infancy. Ezinma resembles her mother who was once the village beauty. She understands her father well, and he in turn wishes that she had been born a son. Ezinma also shares a close relationship with her mother, who considers Ezinma to be a companion as well as a daughter.
Ezinma Quotes in Things Fall Apart
The Things Fall Apart quotes below are all either spoken by Ezinma or refer to Ezinma. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8
Quotes
Ezinma took the dish in one hand and the empty water bowl in the other and went back to her mother's hut. “She should have been a boy,” Okonkwo said to himself again. His mind went back to Ikemefuna and he shivered.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Ezinma Character Timeline in Things Fall Apart
The timeline below shows where the character Ezinma appears in Things Fall Apart. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
On the morning of the second day of the festival, Ekwefi and her only daughter Ezinma talk as she prepares a fowl to eat. Ezinma asks many questions, calling her mother...
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Ezinma brings Okonkwo a bowl of the pottage Ekwefi prepared and waits as he finishes his...
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Chapter 6
...with Chielo, the priestess of the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. Chielo calls Ezinma “my daughter,” and asks about the girl's health. She tells Ekwefi that she thinks Ezinma...
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Chapter 8
...as well. On the third day, he asks Ekwefi to roast plantains for him, and Ezinma delivers the dish, telling him to finish it, since he hasn't eaten in two days....
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Chapter 9
...then Ekwefi wakes him in the morning by banging on his door. She says that Ezinma is dying, and Okonkwo rushes to Ekwefi's hut. He begins preparing a medicine of leaves...
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...children who died and entered their mothers' wombs to be born again. By the time Ezinma was born, Ekwefi had lost hope, but when Ezinma lived past the age of six,...
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...ingredients, and he and Ekwefi prepare the medicine. Once the medicine is ready, he forces Ezinma to sit under a blanket with the steaming pot. She struggles, but is held down,...
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Chapter 11
One moonless night, Ezinma and Ekwefi sit in their hut telling stories. Ekwefi tells the story of a clever...
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Ezinma complains that there is no song in the story, and she begins her turn to...
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Ekwefi begins to doubt herself, wondering if she can do anything if something happens to Ezinma in the caves. When Chielo and Ezinma enter the cave mouth, however, Ekwefi vows that...
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Chapter 12
...Ekwefi is exhausted from the previous night. Chielo had crawled out of the shrine with Ezinma sleeping on her back in the morning and walked back to the village with Okonkwo...
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...and sleepy, since he didn't sleep at all the night before, out of worry for Ezinma. Obierika's compound is busy with preparations for the uri, cooking yams and cassava, preparing goats...
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Chapter 20
Ezinma has grown into one of the most beautiful girls in Mbanta. She is called the...
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Chapter 23
...take a cut. The villagers don't know what to do or what to believe, and Ezinma breaks her twenty-eight day visit to her husband's family when she hears that her father...
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Chapter 24
...but they leave in brooding silence, not speaking to any of the clansmen they pass. Ezinma prepares a meal for her father, and he eats only to please her, even though...
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