A DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE

CHARACTERS IN POSSESSING THE

SECRET OF JOY.

BY CHIKA UNIGWE

BSC.MATHEMATICS
YEAR 2
GROUP 8

July 22, 2022

Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 2
1.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 THE BODY 4
2.1 Major Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.1 Chief Okeke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.2 Uju . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.3 Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Minor Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 THE CONCLUSION 6

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Summary
ˆ The prose “Possessing the secret of joy” talks about the hard-
ship of a female girl that later on leads to joy. This story
is based on some practices(underage marriage) that were un-
dergoing in the late era and some reasons (poverty) why they
occurred.

ˆ The hardship of the female protagonist started when she lost

her dad and was sent out of her father’s house together with
her mom , to a life of extreme poverty.

ˆ It later moves on to them acquiring a certain a glimpse of

hope when a wealthy man offered to marry her(Uju) into his
wealth(luxurious life), but that was never her source of happi-
ness even though she married him.

ˆ It concludes with her finding happiness through an unexpected

circumstance; thus, giving birth to her new born baby.

ˆ The story also emphasis on the marriage of underage female

girls who are made to marry because of situations weather they
are in love or not. An era where a woman’s opinion is always
neglected in conversation even if it’s about her.

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1.2 Definitions
ˆ Characterization : is a literary device that is used step-by-
step in literature to highlight and explain the details about a
character in a story.
ˆ Character : is a participant(a person, animal, non-living en-
tities, etc.) in the story.

There are basically four types of characters present within the

prose; “Possessing the secret of joy”, these are:
ˆ Round character : is a type of character that changes or
evolves in the course of narrative . The characters that exhibit
this type of behavior in the prose are Uju.
ˆ Flat character : is the character who remains the same or
never evolves throughout the story. Chief Okeke and her Mother
is a typical example of a flat character.
ˆ Stereotype character : is the type of character that exhibit a
particular attributes by which a particular individual is known.
These character type found within the prose are; Uju’s father,
Uju’s uncle, Prophet, father’s big sister, Family.
ˆ Stock character : is the type of character that exhibit a
true representation of a particular group or profession. These
characters are: driver, Nurses, Midwife, Gynecologist, Godfrey
the Carpenter and the Prophet.

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Chapter 2

THE BODY

2.1 Major Characters

2.1.1 Chief Okeke
ˆ According to the prose, Chief Okeke is a wealthy and influen-
tial old man(judging by the age estimation generated by the
narrator) who has everything except children and a wife of his
own.
ˆ Chief Okeke can be said to be an exploiter( one who takes
advantage of other) in the sense that, he took advantage of
Uju’s poverty to marry her even though she was underaged.
ˆ Chief Okeke character was kind, and caring due to the way he
treated Uju during their marriage.
ˆ He was a well respected man due to his wealth.

2.1.2 Uju
ˆ She is the narrator and the center of attention of the prose.
ˆ She was a seventeen year old girl, who was persuaded into an
underaged marriage of which she was never interested in, with
the aim of making her mother’s wish come true.
ˆ She was an individual who valued love to wealth; because she
wasn’t in love with Chief Okeke(her husband), she hesitated
when she heard his proposal but later agreed with the aim of
satisfying her mother’s wishes.

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ˆ Uju never felt happy within the married life she had with his
betrothed husband because she never loved nor felt at home
with the man and all his wealth until she found solitude within
her new born baby.
ˆ She hated the thought of being married to someone she made
fun of but later on found happiness within motherly link be-
tween the baby and her.

2.1.3 Mother
ˆ She was the widowed mom of Uju, who was accused of killing
her husband and loosing all the properties of the late husband
to the family of the deceased.
ˆ She was a materialistic woman who preferred marring a man
of wealth to marring someone because of love.
ˆ She wanted a better life for her daughter, a life she didn’t and
couldn’t afford to provide for her.
ˆ Her definition of true happiness lies within wealth hence couldn’t
identify her daughter’s unhappy marriage life because she taught
her daughter had everything that can make her happy provided
by her rich husband.

2.2 Minor Characters

ˆ Father; Uju’s dad whom she hardly knew but according to her
mom, was a gentle, quite, and caring person.
ˆ Driver; Chief Okeke’s hired worker who took care of Uju and
her mother’s transport.
ˆ Nurses, Midwife, Gynecologist; helped Uju in her delivery.
ˆ Uju’s Uncle, Older sister and family; the people who drove Uju
and her mom from the three bedroom flat owned by Uju’s dad.
ˆ Godfrey the bachelor carpenter; a neighbor who offered to work
on Uju’s mom’s table under cheap rate.
ˆ Prophet; the man who had a prophecy about Uju’s mom having
something to do with the death of her husband.

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 Chapter 3

THE CONCLUSION

ˆ “Possessing the secret of happiness” is a story that emphasizes

on certain hardships some individual undergoes in the aim of
obtaining happiness in their life.
ˆ It tells us that true happiness is not always found in material-
istic substance.
ˆ The characters and the roles they portray within the prose rep-
resent the practices (underaged marriages) that were undergo-
ing in the 19’s era.