Half Of A Yellow Sun Chimamanda Adichie English Literature Essay

Half Of A yellow(a) cheer Chimamanda Adichie English Literature moveAfter reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies enthralling sweet, Half of a Yellow Sun is non a conventional contend story. It is a story whose characters depart in a changing contendtime atmosphere, doing their best to keep that environment at bay. And while the ravages of the Biafran war argon well known, they do not seeming(a) themselves in predictable or champion-note ways here. From reading the reviews, I well-educated that this is the authors second unexampled. It is written with astounding empathy and the natural grace of a common function storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. In this literary analysis, I plan on examining aspects of the literary elements that Adichie incorporates as far as her writing style and her reasons for depicting authorized elements in certain light. I excessively plan to break down some cha racterizations and ethnical elements of her young that I relate to in trying to understand inter-racial/ affiliate conflict. Finally, I look at how Adichie transforms her characters throughout the sweet. Although this analysis may not follow a dischargely defined stream, much neediness the novel does, rest assured that I cover all my bases.The characters and landscape are vividly painted -thirteen year old Ugwu is employed as a mobboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professors beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her carriage of privilege in Lagos for a grimy university town and the charisma of her impudently lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman courting Olannas twin sis, an enigmatic trope who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested and so are their loyalties to one another.In my opinion, the central theme revolves around chaste responsi bility, about the ending of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, and about class and race. Adichie indicts the outside world for its composure and probes the arrogance and ignorance that perpetuated the conflict. Based loosely on political stock-stillts in nineteen-sixties Nigeria, this novel focuses on Olanna who falls for the imperious academic whose political convictions mask his face-to-face weaknesses meanwhile, Kainene becomes involved with a shy, studious British white man who struggles to reign his place within this conflict though he identifies with the Biafrans. After a series of massacres targeting the Igbo race, the proper world of the two couples breaks down. Half of a Yellow Sun is concerned with class and race and ethnicity which seem to play the biggest intention in the relationships of characters to one another.Ugwu is simply thirteen when he begins working as a houseboy for Odenigbo, except he is one of the most intelligent and observing characters in t he novel. His presence throughout affects the readers experience of the story because he is ab initio a naive outsider looking in but by the end of the novel he comes into his own. Good or bad, life and the war situation change him into a veteran and he chronicles his experiences during the war.The ways in which Adichie reveals the differences in social class among her characters is also culturally relevant. There are the different cultural assumptions made by educated Africans like Odenigbo, nouveau riche Africans like Olannas parents, uneducated Africans like Odenigbos fuck off, and British expatriates like Richards ex-girlfriend Susan. Adichie seems to poke fun at certain aspects of her characters, take Odenigbo for instance the war changes him from educated political debater to a squalid drunk and really displays the power shift in roles. Once he was the stolid figure in the novel, Olanna seems to take that place while he degenerates due to the war scenario.In reading the nov el, I couldnt help but express a connection between the final solution and the Biafran situation. I order myself questioning why are the Igbo being massacred by the Hausa? I could only attribute their conflict to tribal resentments and rivalries. The novel makes clear that these rivalries have been intensified by British interference supplying the Hausa with money, weapons and ammunitions. similarly conveyed by some excerpts throughout the book, the British had to preserve Nigeria as they proverb fit a spite of France and to perpetuate their large market. They also rewrote the arrangement to give the north control over the central government and even fixed the elections in their favor. Given the history of Nigeria and Britains support during the war, the defeat of Biafra seems a foregone conclusion but I can understand why a people oppressed would revolt.Adichie breaks the chronological sequence of her story so that she can delay the revelation that Baby is not Olannas child and that Olanna had a brief liaison with Richard. The effects of these revelations tell of a cultural dilemma. The babys mother rejects her, Odenigbos mother rejects her for not being a son, yet Olanna shows her true resolution in accepting the baby as her own. Adichie makes a point of displaying Olannas conservative frame of mind. She is disgusted at the cockroach eggs in her cousins house and is reluctant to let Baby mix with village children because they have lice, but by the end of the novel her privileged outlook changed by the war.It is rum that a woman so young could write a novel of this scope. There is a human face on these struggles, and being Nigerian-Igbo I can relate to them. Bearing witness to violence and death changes people in the story. Adichie handles descriptions of scenes of violence, death, and famine in an almost brutal and nonchalant way. I can only image what goes through Ugwus mind being that he participates in the rape of the bar girl then finds out that h is sister was also gang-raped. Richard, on the other hand, seems like he wants to be African, learns to dis lineage Igbo, and says we when he speaks of Biafra. Although the Biafran soldiers are not impressed, it seems a noble gesture to want to be an Igbo man.Reading this book has deepened my understanding of Biafra in particular and war in general each character make difficult moral judgments. I find myself being least sympathetic to Olanna when she cheats in retaliation, to Ugwu when he rapes the bar-girl, to Eberechi for exchanging favors for security from the soldier, even to Odenigbos mother when she chases Olanna out of the house. Each of the major characters also deal with the question of identity who they are, how they want to be? It is evident that the thoughtfulness in any culture dictates how people act and react and reassert their behavior. In this case, endurance between two tribes was the catalyst in a previously stable country, language reinforce the novels theme s of racial and social division. For example, Ugwus love of the English language, or the mixing of dialects and spoken communication throughout the novel. Even in Richards character, he seems like an outsider. I feel sympathy for him and although his character adds extra insight into the Nigeria/Biafra war, I bet that he is much like a ghost roaming the entire novel looking for a place to fit in. That is why it is particularly dismal at the end of the novel when Kainene doesnt return as she would have been the only person to allow Richard to assimilate into the culture.In conclusion, the story is one of survival and remembrance from an Igbo perspective it is important story to retell. The story begins as Ugwus auntie describes to Ugwu his new employer Master was a little crazy he had spent too many years reading books overseas, talked to himself in his office, did not continuously return greetings, and had too much hair. It ends with Ugwus dedication of his book For Master, my good man. I can only consider how Ugwus relation to his master has changed throughout the course of the story, it fitting that Ugwu, and not Richard, should be the one who writes the story of the war and his people. It was a surprise to discover that Ugwu was the author of The World was Silent When We Died? I found this a great twist and I didnt see it coming. Since loyalty and treachery is one of the dominant themes throughout the novel, the key characters betray each other, or themselves repeatedly but the greater threat from an outside enemy helps to specify things in perspective and enable them to forgive and move on and provides for unification. I found the end of the story sad but settling since the Igbos returned to their homes, I cannot image having to flee from my home due to racial or tribal persecution.