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It was not proper to let an older person do your chores, but Mama did not mind; there was so much that she did not mind.
Kambili makes this observation at the beginning of Part 2, Speaking with Our Spirits, when Beatrice brings in Kambili’s school uniform from the clothesline before Kambili can get to it. Although in this case Kambili doesn’t mean any insult, throughout the novel, Beatrice appears to absorb or accept many active and intended insults, primarily from Eugene. He questions her faith, destroys her figurines, hurts her children, causes her to appear infertile to the community. While these things do hurt Beatrice, her lack of direct revolt causes young Kambili to see her as not truly minding.
She did not usually say so much at one time. She spoke the way a bird eats, in small amounts.
Kambili makes this observation about Beatrice in Part 2, Speaking with Our Spirits, when Beatrice tells Kambili that she’s pregnant. Beatrice’s relative silence and small bursts of talking are reminiscent of Kambili’s inability to speak her mind throughout the novel, demonstrating that she, too, is an obedient subject in Eugene’s realm. The fact that Beatrice speaks so much about the baby highlights how important having another child is to her. Her excitement signals that having another child is not merely a personal desire but a desire for the community to see her as a fit wife for such a prominent man as Eugene.
“She said she uses her old kerosene stove now. You remember the story of adulterated kerosene that was blowing up stoves and killing people? I thought maybe you might send one or two gas cylinders to her from the factory.”
“Is that what you and Ifeoma planned?”
“Kpa, I am just making a suggestion. It is up to you to decide.”
This conversation between Beatrice and Eugene takes place in Part 2, Speaking with Our Spirits, just before Kambili and Jaja go to Nsukka for the first time. This moment indicates that Beatrice isn’t as passive as she first appears. She asks Eugene for the gas strategically so that he still feels in control of making the final decision. Notably, Eugene underestimates Beatrice here by assuming independent Ifeoma put her up to asking him for gas. Even though Beatrice is responding to Ifeoma’s plight, the decision to ask is her own.
“Where would I go if I leave Eugene’s house? Tell me, where would I go?” She did not wait for Aunty Ifeoma to respond. “Do you know how many mothers pushed their daughters at him? Do you know how many asked him to impregnate them, even, and not to bother paying a bride price?”
In this quotation from the end of Part 2, Speaking with Our Spirits, Beatrice explains why she feels she can’t leave Eugene. Leaving a prosperous and well-respected husband like Eugene would have dire social and financial consequences. Her parents have passed, and she doesn’t earn an independent income, so, on a practical level, she doesn’t have any refuge if she leaves Eugene. Her emphasis on how the community reveres Eugene as a desirable husband implies that she knows leaving him would make others see her as ungrateful, ruining her own reputation.
I started putting the poison in his tea before I came to Nsukka. Sisi got it for me; her uncle is a powerful witch doctor.
In this quotation from the end of Part 3, The Pieces of Gods, Beatrice confesses to killing Eugene. While Beatrice has spent the novel rebelling against Eugene in only the smallest ways, this moment reveals that she has finally reached her breaking point after Eugene causes her yet another miscarriage. In choosing murder, it becomes clear that Beatrice is concerned with preserving both Eugene’s legacy and saving her own face. Leaving Eugene would not only subject her to ridicule and financial hardship but force her to openly reveal the abuse.
