Women in Predicament

In The Predicament Ije was faced with different predicament when her father died, she was sexually abused. Onenenyi who was ije's father paid more attention to ije than his other children, which lead to the other children not liking ije. Even the villagers use to praise ije in the presence of his father in order for the man to give them there demand. Ije's father had diabetes and when he was in the hospital, ije was always crying for his bad health. When her father died, people said all sort of things to her because she didn't cry during the funeral. "That child's sorrow is beyond this world. It is in animus. No tears can wash it away. With people like this, I am afraid. She must be watched closely before she does any harm to herself" (50). After the funeral ceremony, her family had nothing left, and some of the children were to be sent to the homes of their aunt of the house to live with Mama Oko. When ije went to madam Oko's house, she was use like a house girl, even though she was still going to school. She was selling banana on the street without putting on a shoe. "It had become ugly, full of a stone that punishes her toes and the soles of her feet" (56). When she's going around hawking her banana, the sun penetrates through the metal tray she's carrying into her brain. "The broiling sun was mercilessly heating her head and sizzling her brain" (57). "The metal tray on which her bananas were displayed was a good medium for the punishing heat and carried the message to her brain, making the skin of her skull the go-between." Ije was in a terrible situation going through all these suffering. When Ije was going around hawking her banana, she met Ajekwu who bought all her bananas on different occasions. Ajekwu became closer to ije and it became a normal route for ije to be in Ajekwu's house. Ajekwu had sexually abused Ije that she became more interested in going to his house everyday. But when a civil war broke out, and Ajekwu left to join the army without informing Ije of his movement. Ije passes by Ajekwu's house for three weeks before she learned that Ajekwu has moved. It was as if her suffering was just starting, her heart was broken.