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Everything Good Will Come Characters include Sheri, Enitan, Niyi, and Sunny amongst others.

Synopsis

Everything Good Will Come is a novel by a Nigerian novelist, Sefi Attah. The author comments on the post-colonial and post-war conflicts in Nigeria and centers the story on an overprotective family: Enitan’s mother devotes most of her time to church activities, while her father, who’s a lawyer and politician, is avoidant and manipulative. 

The daughter, Enitan, is restricted from associating with the outside world, but as time goes by, she breaks from her confinement to play with a girl living nearby. Many people in her life -from her father to her later husband, have once advised her to be defiant against an oppressor, making her grow the inordinate power to speak up against injustice.

 

 

Everything Good Will Come Characters

Sheri

She’s one of the characters the novel emphasizes as her life is tracked from the beginning to the end. She’s a product of mixed marriage—her mother is a white woman —and polygamy, making her witness the traditional aspect of African society. She remains in touch with her childhood friend, Enitan, throughout the novel. 

Sheri’s life changed when she was raped; she had gone out to party with Enitan after the latter returned home from abroad for vacation. The incident resulted in a shameful pregnancy that she tries to abort through a clothes hanger; this causes her barrenness. Being barren is the worst thing a woman has to confront in Nigerian traditional society – having a child is considered a great gift from a woman to a man. 

When it dawns on her that the abortion procedure, which she has botched, would deprive her of the opportunity to give birth, she opts to live as a mistress to a Muslim brigadier who caters to her needs. She stoops low to become a housewife, takes care of the kitchen, and does laundry for her man. Enitan gives her business hints which she puts into effect with the help of the Brigadier, enabling her to have another source of income.

 

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Enitan

She’s the protagonist of the novel whose life is followed from childhood into adulthood. She becomes the only child of her parents after the death of her brother. However, she learns her father has a son when the police arrest him for being outspoken against the corrupt government. 

Enitan is not allowed to associate with her mates as a child as a result of her brother’s death. However, she grows rebellious as time passed. She began to sneak out of the house to play with a neighbor, Sheri, who teaches her to be defiant against her parent’s orders. She disengages herself from Sheri after witnessing her being raped by party-drunk boys. 

Enitan has had many people in her life, from her father to her husband, Niyi, who invite her to stand up for her right, making her develop the guts to speak up against oppression amidst adversity.

The political instability in her country changes her perception of her world: she has to endure endless gas shortages and harassment by the police, who have arrested her father. Although the reality of her country has dawned on her, she still thinks she lives a life the large majority of her country’s people gasp for. 

When she became aware she had a brother, she found reasons to loathe and distrust men more. Enitan, throughout the novel, fights for women’s rights in the men-favored society. She represents the enlightened women in Nigeria who have to fight against the domineering traditional rights bestowed on men. 

At the end of the novel, Enitan abandons her husband to join a feminist organization to fight for the right of women in society.

 

Sunny

He’s a lawyer and Enitan’s father. He’s the one who implants the seed of defiance in Enitan. He’s fond of advising her against heeding her mother’s order to join her in the kitchen so that she can master the craft of cooking. He believes the girls of her generation must not learn to cook. However, when Enitan grows into whom her father wants and begins to use his teachings against him, he becomes furious and avoidant. He wants her to use all of that against others except him, and this unveils how the men want their domineering rights unchecked.

 

Enitan’s mother

She’s made fun of due to her piety, but later, we learn she’s a victim of the society she finds herself. She knows a women’s value is hinged on her ability to give birth, especially a male child – the reason she exhausts herself trying to save her son. When her son escapes to death, she becomes broken. She’s aware of the traditional rights allotted to men. For this reason, she detached herself from Sunny right from the beginning of the novel. Enitan becomes close to her mother after being conscious of the demands of the men-dominating society into which she is born and in which her mouth is part.

 

Niyi

Husband to Enitan, Niyi is another version of Sunny in Enitan’s life. Like Sunny, he frequently advises her to stand up for her right. When Enitan is on the edge of exploitation at her workplace, he backs her up to withstand any form of harassment and exploitation from anyone. 

Their marriage was going well till Enitan became pregnant. At this time, her rebellious part was showing gradually. She is obsessed with doing things contrary to whatever her husband wants. Niyi’s behaviour is infantile, so Enitan pampers him like a child, but this does not stop him from demanding she submits to him. 

When her father is arrested, Niyi tries to stop her from working with Grace Ameh and avoid doing things that will attract the attention of the police. However, Enitan defies his advice to work with Grace, and the police arrest her in the end. With the situation tense and Enitan’s mother dead, Niyi resolves to do the dishes and cooking, which means he’s fit to do this all this while but leaves Enitan to do them alone. This act and his unwillingness to support her in the fight to release the female prisoners lead to their divorce.

 

Grace Ameh

She’s a feminist who helps Enitan learn the whereabouts of her father when the police arrested him. She talks Enitan into taking dangerous actions – the reason Niyi tries to put a wedge between them. Enitan gets arrested eventually while attending a reading partly organized by Grace. She joins a feminist movement that campaigns for the release of female prisoners. Grace is an active member of the group. Enitan separates from Niyi due to his unwillingness to support the movement