The story is a struggle between tradition and modernity with the village priest and the old woman representing tradition and Michael Obi and his wife representing modernity. Obi is enthusiastic about modernizing and beautifying the mission school, and he is so absorbed in his ambition and hubris that he fails to understand the importance of traditional life and culture to the villagers. This leads not only to his personal downfall but his failure to implement the new colonial curriculum in the village school. Additionally, the villagers react with increased hostility to British colonial rule.

In this struggle, Obi and his wife assert the superiority of colonialism and modernity over the traditional Indigenous culture early in the story. At the end of the first paragraph, the reader is told that Obi “was outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and less educated” headmasters found in the mission field who had not been designated as “pivotal” like he had (70). This indicates not a belief in colonial supremacy but his delight in succeeding within this system. Nancy wants things to be “beautiful,” “modern,” and “delightful,” (70-72) as she has embraced both the “modern methods” espoused by her husband and his “denigration” of those deemed old-fashioned or obsolete.