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The main character of the story, Chike is a young boy who is just at the age to start school. He is the firstborn son to his parents, Amos and Sarah, after five girls, and because of his gender, his birth is a huge occasion to celebrate. His parents’ Christian beliefs isolate him from his community, most of whom abide by traditional Igbo values and religion. This causes Chike not to accept food from his neighbors, for instance, because his mother believes that it’s heathen since it’s offered to traditional Igbo deities. Chike is eager to begin school in spite of his sisters’ warnings that the schoolteacher “beats students to death.” At school, Chike adores the songs he sings with his classmates—especially the ones in English, even though he can’t understand or pronounce many of the words. As Chike gets older, he becomes even more fascinated with the English language. His teacher uses long words with his students that impress Chike very much: his favorite words is periwinkle, for example. When Chike gets home from school, he likes to read the stories from his New Method Reader schoolbook. Again, many of these don’t make sense to him, either, but that doesn’t stop him from enjoying reading. What’s more, Chike makes up nonsensical songs with the words he’s learned that engage his imagination and imbue him with visions of “a strange, magical new world.”
Chike Quotes in Chike’s School Days
The Chike’s School Days quotes below are all either spoken by Chike or refer to Chike. 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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Chike’s School Days
Quotes
Sarah taught her children not to eat in their neighbors’ houses because “they offered their food to idols.” And thus she set herself against the age-old custom which regarded children as the common responsibility of all […]
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The neighbor was full of rage, but she controlled herself and only muttered under her breath that even an Osu was full of pride nowadays, thanks to the white man.
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It did not matter to their dancing that in the twentieth century Caesar was no longer ruler of the whole world.
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According to the teacher, there were five methods: by man, by animals, by water, by wind, and by explosive mechanism. Even those pupils who forgot all the other methods remembered “explosive mechanism.”
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Chike read it over and over again at home and then made a song of it. It was a meaningless song […] But it was like a window through which he saw in the distance a strange, magical new world. And he was happy.
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Get the entire Chike’s School Days LitChart as a printable PDF.
Chike Quotes in Chike’s School Days
The Chike’s School Days quotes below are all either spoken by Chike or refer to Chike. 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:
).
Chike’s School Days
Quotes
Sarah taught her children not to eat in their neighbors’ houses because “they offered their food to idols.” And thus she set herself against the age-old custom which regarded children as the common responsibility of all […]
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The neighbor was full of rage, but she controlled herself and only muttered under her breath that even an Osu was full of pride nowadays, thanks to the white man.
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It did not matter to their dancing that in the twentieth century Caesar was no longer ruler of the whole world.
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According to the teacher, there were five methods: by man, by animals, by water, by wind, and by explosive mechanism. Even those pupils who forgot all the other methods remembered “explosive mechanism.”
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Chike read it over and over again at home and then made a song of it. It was a meaningless song […] But it was like a window through which he saw in the distance a strange, magical new world. And he was happy.
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