Through the examination of these tropes, one should develop a critical awareness of the relationship between the sacred and the profane in the Modern context of No Longer At Ease , observing the once-sacred symbols which come into being as metaphors for the displacement of traditional Igbo eschatology and the contemporary presence of a widening gulf between the individual the sacred. When read critically, one notes that Eliade prompts the reader to form narrow conclusions concerning what he refers to as the archaic, primitive man who, much like the community represented in Things Fall Apart , is surrounded by the essence of spirituality in every aspect of daily life. More completely, Eliade states, The man of the archaic societies tends to live as much as possible in the sacred or in close proximity to consecrated objects. The tendency is perfectly understandable, because, for primitives as for the man of all pre-modern societies, the sacred is equivalent to a power , and in the last analysis, to reality . The sacred is saturated with being .
Sacred power means reality and at the same time enduringness and efficacity.
At Ease , one begins to see the serious implications of displaced ownership and ambiguous definition of sacred objects and rites. In traditional Igbo society, it was the role of the artist to affirm a sense of the sacred within the community. Apart illustrates the villagers deliberate commitment to the surrendering of mortal reason and an acknowledgment of the divine importance of these rituals . Okonkwo s wives, and perhaps other women as well, might have noticed that the second egwugwu had the springy walk of Okonkwo. And they might also have noticed that Okonkwo was not among the titled men and elders who sat behind the row of egwugwu .