To exhibit my understanding of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “A Private Experience,” I used symbols, images, phrases, and colours that convey things at a deeper level. The author intended to say that diverse religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, and cultures should not distort or determine our judgment of others. We are all human behind racism, homophobia, and gender injustice, and we should treat one other with respect through our words and even our thoughts. By distributing the message throughout the text, the author succeeded in this religious and ethnic conflict storyline. Chika, a well-educated Christian woman from a wealthy family, encounters a Hausa woman who is opposed. The woman is less well-off and lives in a third-world country with lower educational standards than the United States. The ladies practise different religions, but they also have varying levels of money and education. Chika is quick to pass judgment on the Hausa woman, thinking things like, “Chika wonders if the woman even understands what going to university implies.”
However, as they spend more time together, they discover more about each other’s lives and develop friendships. I also chose graphics and icons that represent story aspects to demonstrate my grasp of the story, and I also tried to use dark background on each slide to give sort of a dark mood. Some slides have photos representing something related to the topic and provide more descriptions of each fall. For example, I used a picture of the city, Kano, and for symbolism, I used a photo of a hijab, a scarf that Muslim women wear to hide their hair. For the plot, I had two slides on telling the story and two pictures, one for the Hausa Muslim outfit and one for the Igbo Christian. As we can see, it is easily noticeable on telling which religion they are on, which was the main reason I used pictures on slides. For the theme, I used an image representing the equalization of race and social identity, which fits the story’s theme. Despite their religious differences, we are all human regardless of race, religion, sexuality, or gender. I also used a quote to let people recognize my thoughts on each slide for each slide. For example, I used the section on the slide settings, “Chika wants to ask the woman how many riots she witnessed, but she does not. She has read about the others in the past: Hausa Muslim Zealots attacking Igbo Christians, and sometimes Igbo Christians going on murderous missions of revenge” (page 49) to show the impact on the war. In the quote, she wanted to ask the women how many riots she witnessed, which means that Chika had already seen a certain amount of witnesses, which shows the tragedy of the war.
Last of all, in the Criticism lens, I explained who the author was by using the biographical lens. Which I think is a good tool because after researching who the author was and what life she had lived, I understand why she wrote the book “A Private Experience”. She was born when her family was impacted by the Nigerian war, which was a tragedy. Growing up an African-American woman, she had to go through rough scenarios, which was a bad experience but an excellent source to write about.