The market represents the hollowness in Julius’ heart. Due to the corruption of the society, Julius lost his innocence, which leads to his loneliness. The market is described to be clean and nice, but as the white people come to do business, the whole place becomes busy, crowded and dirty. Julius is like the market. Before his education helps him to find a job at the company, his mind and soul is unpolluted and innocent. After he gets into the business, “education placed him above such superstitious stuff.” Julius becomes judgemental and critical. He no longer believes in sacrificial eggs, mammy-wota. For example, in the beginning of the play, Julius describes his chief clerk in a nasty tone, as if implies his clerk is like a pig which snores and is fat. Before Julius leaves his village, his life is happy with his fiancé, just like the market which is full of people. However, peripetia, the reverse of situation occurs, as Janet, Julius’ fiancé dies of smallpox. This is ironic because Julius works to create a happy family, but everything is gone. Suddenly, without his fiancé, Julius life is emptied, just like the deserted market. This vast of emptiness separates him from the past happiness. In fact, the market is implied to physically separate Julius from his hometown.
Janet’s mother once mentioned that not all the people in the markets are real humans. Ma once mentions mammy-wota, which actually symbolizes Julius’ impossibility to reach happiness. "[B]ecause they are beautiful with a beauty that is not of this world. You catch a glimpse of them with the tail of your eye, then they disappear in the crowd." Ma says that to Julius when he sceptically asks Ma. Julius never believes in superstition, but he does not want to anger Ma, so he pretends to care. Julius hope of happiness is vanishing quickly, just like the mammy-wota, one glimpse and then they disappear. For him, happiness is too good to exist, because Janet dies, and his business is collapsing due to the smallpox. Julius desire of happiness is too unrealistic to come true just like the mammy-wota are too beautiful to belong to the world.
