“A Private Experience” explores the causes and consequences of ethnic and religious conflicts. The author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, represents this through the eyes of Chika, a young, wealthy, Igbo Christian medical student that travelled to the Nigerian City of Kano with her sister, Nnedi. There, they find themselves trapped amid social unrest between two ethnic groups, the Igbo Christians, and the Hausa Muslims. Chika finds a Hausa woman that helps her seek shelter in an abandoned shop. As Chika and the woman interact with each other, Adiche presents the theme of the story and various aspects that help shape it. I have created a mind map with seven key literary elements to analyze the story and further discover the theme.
I chose seven images that I believe represent and connect to the seven literary elements: plot, theme, setting, literary criticism lens, point of view, symbolism, and characterization. For the plot, I chose an image of a real protest in the city of Kano. I believe this image is connected to the plot as it expresses the main conflict of the story. Throughout the story, Adichie slowly gives readers more information about the plot using the future tense with her flashforwards that often started with “Later.” In terms of the theme, I chose an image of a Christian figure and a Muslim figure beside each other as it shows the conflict between the Igbo Christians and the Hausa Muslims in the story. Adiche focused on showing readers that regardless of ethnicity or religion, we are all the same. She expresses this through the interaction between Chika and the Woman. Although both come from completely different backgrounds, social status, and religion, they still make a connection through other means; in this case, it was through Chika offering her advice with breastfeeding and the woman treating Chikas’ wound. The setting of the story is in the marketplace of Kano amid riots. I chose a picture of violent riots in Kano to give an idea of what it looks like. The conflict of the story is a real conflict that still continues to this day. However, most of the story takes place in an abandoned store. There is a very clear juxtaposition and irony between Chika and the setting. With Chika being from a wealthy family, it is unexpected that she finds herself amid a dangerous social unrest. However, to further understand the story, I feel that using the biographical approach would be most appropriate. I chose a picture of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie herself as she has personal experience with ethnic and religious conflict, particularly in Nigeria. Her family was greatly affected by the Nigerian civil war of 1970 that saw the ethnic splitting of nation. Therefore, by analyzing her background, we can see where the inspiration for the story came from. In terms of the point of view, I chose a photo of people pointing fingers at one person as I feel it represents the assumptive thoughts and actions Chika had towards the woman near the start of the story. I analyzed how, through the eyes of Chika, we discovered more about her character and how it changed over the course of the story. However, there was more than the point of view that helped the reader learn more about Chikas’ character. The scarf was a very clear symbol and represented the dynamic change in Chikas’ attitude towards her situation. Near the end of the story, Chika asks the woman if she can keep the scarf; although it had her blood stains from it covering her leg wound that she had sustained earlier in the story. This action by Chika shows that she wanted to keep the connection she made with the woman. For this, I put an similar image of the scarf that Chika described in the story. Lastly, I analysed Chikas’ and the womans’ characters. Adichie used these contrasting characters to show that we can always have a connection with each other because we are all human. For these characterizations, I chose a picture of a well-off woman walking past a homeless man as I feel it represents the contrast between Chika and the woman. However, I also included 2 other pictures that demonstrate their characters well. The first was a picture of a Burberry handbag, the same designer company of the bag that Chika dropped as she was running. This shows her materialistic desires and perspective. For the woman, I chose a picture of a Nigerian street market as the woman described how she was selling onions to make money for her family. Both of these paint a clear description of their characters.
Overall, “A Private experience” demonstrates ethnic and religious conflicts in a very clear and informative way. Adichie used many different literary elements such as the flash forwarding to indulge the reader to think more critically towards the meaning of the story.
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