. What does Okonkwo’s appearance at the cave convey about his character

the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).

often a noun phrase is just a noun or a pronoun:

people like to have money.

i am tired.

it is getting late.

just say it's your friend did it and you had no idea?

i may be wrong but i think your answer is flashback