What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky

As the first story in the collection, “The Future Looks Good” sets expectations for the stories to follow. As Lesley Arimah says of it, “It’s short, punchy and provides a decent thematic summary of the rest of the book” (Cooper, Maggie. “As Long as What Is Said Is Understood: Talking with Lesley Nneka Arimah.” The Rumpus, 26 Jul. 2017).

In particular, the story previews the family relationships at the heart of the collection. The stories of Ezinma’s family’s past show different facets of familial discord and harmony, with the characters modeling types that will reappear throughout the other stories: those who yearn for affection, those who sacrifice and get worn down, and those who are resentful or greedy. Ezinma’s father is of the first type, and his mother is the second. The author describes Ezinma’s father as a boy “vying for his mother’s affection” (1), but she cannot fulfill his needs because of the economic and domestic demands placed on her. She is “overworked to the bone by the women whose houses she dusted […]; overworked by the bones of a husband who wanted many sons and the men she entertained to give them to him” (1). His father’s new wife does not fill that void, regarding him as someone who will compete with her for resources and thus herself falling into the third category. Ezinma’s mother, “a brash girl who takes more than is offered” (3), and Bibi, who resents Ezinma’s sweetness, are also of this type.

These characters react to one another, with one generation’s greed, restrictions, or fears setting a course for the next. For example, Bibi was named Biafra “out of spite, as though to say, Look, Mother, pin your hopes on another fragile thing” (4). Her relationship with Godwin deepens when her mother warns her about him, showing Bibi’s defiance or unwillingness to be guided. Yet these are traits Bibi inherited from her mother; even in her rebellion, the theme of How Mothers Shape Their Children is evident. This renders the story’s title ironic, undercutting the idea that the characters can ever escape their pasts. Likewise, the story’s use of repetition—in this case, the sentence “And so Ezinma fumbles the keys against the lock and doesn’t see what came behind her” (7)—suggests the cyclical nature of the story’s dynamics.

Nevertheless, Bibi’s return home briefly holds out the possibility that the future could indeed be bright. When Ezinma offers to retrieve her sister’s things, the women notice for the first time that they have the same smile, symbolically suggesting Bibi’s ability to see herself in her sister. Bibi thanks her sister, also for the first time, showing that she has started to realize that she can receive love by opening up instead of clinging to what she feels is hers alone. However, the tender connection between the sisters is cut short as Bibi’s past reasserts itself and Godwin shoots Ezinma.

Godwin too is a character of the third type. He “grew up under his father’s corrosive indulgence […] so unused to hearing no it hits him like a wave of acid, dissolving the superficial decency of a person who always gets his way” (7-8). He is not only manipulative but abusive. In the world of this story collection, the characters who take without giving and who put their own wants above the needs of others can turn monstrous if not checked. Ezinma’s death at his hands establishes a pattern that recurs throughout the collection: Fate dealing a cruel, unexpected hand to an innocent. Sometimes the fateful turn is an accident, but sometimes (as in this case) it comes from taking more than one deserves, whether on an individual level or the level of nations.