h.
             Obi's" character seems self-centered and hurried, he wants everything modern and is not respectful of tradition.
             "He was outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated ones.
             'We shall make a good job of it. Shan't we?' he asked his young wife when they first heard the joyful news of his promotion.
             'We shall do our best,' she replied. 'We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful. . . .'" (Achebe 367).
             Achebe use of the wife's comments about gardens and everything being modern and delightful allows the reader to see that she is also self-centered. Obi is to be the headmaster of a school not a decorator and gardener. Neither Obi nor his wife show any concern for the students and the learning process.
             Obi's self-centeredness and disdain for tradition is infecting his wife, and his wife is falling into his world. If it is not modern, it should be gotten rid of, is their attitude.
             "In their two years of married life she had become completely infected by his passion for 'modern methods' and his denigration of 'these old and superannuated people in the teaching field who would be better employed as traders in the Onitsha market' " (Achebe 367)
             By the use of Obi's character feeling denigration of other peoples teaching methods, and where they would be better off employed, the author buts a "better then thou" feeling about Obi into the readers mind. Tradition is very important to many cultures, there have been killings and even wars started because of someone or group trying to break or stop traditions that have been around for years or sometimes for centuries.
             Obi's wife is just as self-centered has he is, she has no thought of the children at the village school, just the status that will come to her as the headma...