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Okpara is an ethnically Ibo/Igbo Nigerian immigrant to England who meets Adah in a public park after she realizes the abortifacient pills she took to end her fourth pregnancy haven’t worked. Okpara, assuming Adah has had a fight with her husband, offers to help her seek forgiveness. Adah is annoyed by the assumption that she is the one who needs to be forgiven, but she takes Okpara back to her apartment, where he lectures Francis on the need to be a man and support his wife and children, lest he lose his sons’ respect. Okpara is a foil for Francis: he achieves his educational goals during his time in London but remains committed to Ibo/Igbo ideas about men’s responsibilities to support their wives and children, whereas Francis both fails to achieve his goals in immigrating to London and fails to live up to his original culture’s standards of manhood.
Okpara Quotes in Second Class Citizen
The Second Class Citizen quotes below are all either spoken by Okpara or refer to Okpara. 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:
).
Chapter 12: The Collapse
Quotes
“Don’t you remember, or have you forgotten, the saying of our people, that a husband and his wife always build their home for many things but particularly for quarrels? A home is where you quarrel in.” Adah nodded, she did remember.
She should have asked Mr Okpara whether the old people lived in one room, whether the men gave babies to their wives in such quick succession.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Okpara Quotes in Second Class Citizen
The Second Class Citizen quotes below are all either spoken by Okpara or refer to Okpara. 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:
).
Chapter 12: The Collapse
Quotes
“Don’t you remember, or have you forgotten, the saying of our people, that a husband and his wife always build their home for many things but particularly for quarrels? A home is where you quarrel in.” Adah nodded, she did remember.
She should have asked Mr Okpara whether the old people lived in one room, whether the men gave babies to their wives in such quick succession.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
