“‘A good mother’s life is hard,’ she said, ‘a woman can be a bad wife but she must not be a bad mother.’ Moomi told me that before asking God to give me a child, I must ask for the grace to be able to suffer for that child.”

In her attempts to please her mother-in-law and prove that she is a good wife, Yejide accepts The Pressures and Limitations of Tradition unquestioningly, unaware of the psychological pressure it creates for her, leading to pseudocyesis. It also foreshadows the tragedies that she will endure as her children die of sickle cell disease.

“But there are things even love can’t do…If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking, and sometimes does break. But even when it is in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer love.”

Like The Vulnerability Hope Amidst Tragedies, Akin’s deception of Yejide bends their love to breaking, but he maintains that his actions were motivated by love. The paradox that Akin reveals is that people can use positive emotions to commit, and later justify, terrible actions.

“Babangida referred to himself, and came to be referred to, not just as the head of state but as president, as if the coup counted as an election. On the whole, things appeared to go on as usual and, like the rest of the country, my husband and I went back to our routine.”

Just as Funmi’s marriage to Akin has destabilized Akin and Yejide’s home, Babangida’s regime destabilizes Nigeria, with political unrest mirroring their domestic troubles (See: Symbols & Motifs). However, because Funmi and Babangida are out of sight, the couple can deceive themselves regarding the severity of the disruption and accept the change as normal.