“A Private Experience” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a short story about ethnic and religious conflict. The mind map looks into the story with seven different categories. The story is told in third person, but because you can see only Chika’s thoughts, it makes it third person limited omniscient. I chose the photo and quote in the mind map to show that. The physical setting for “a private experience” is first set in a marketplace in Nigeria. Later, Chika and the other woman hide in an empty shop when the riot happens. Emotional setting composes of fear, tension, and confusion. Chika does not know the woman, nor does Chika know why the riot happened. But because of the fear from the uproar, they hide together. The picture I chose is a market, showing the physical setting at the beginning of the story. The quote I chose shows the emotional setting of Chika when she looks outside. As you may already know, Chika is the protagonist of “a private experience.” We see multiple sides of her, in present and future self, making her a round and dynamic character. Dynamic because of the way the riot changes her views of the other woman. The antagonist of the story is the riot itself. Thus, making the conflict person vs society, or even society vs society. I chose the quote because it shows the roundness and dynamics of Chika. The theme for “a private experience” shows that even in times of religous conflicts, there will be some who still have amity. Chika and the other woman are from different religions, and even though the riot started because of religion differences, they both decide to set those differences aside and help each other. I chose this picture because it looks like two woman, with some sort of religion, just like in the story. I chose this quote because it shows that the other woman is Muslim because of her scarf, yet she uses it to help Chika’s leg. The plot of the short story starts from the two woman hiding together in an abandoned store, hiding from the riot. Through a series of flash forwarding and back, they soon get to know more about each other, and also learn why the riot had begun in the first place. When the riot dies down, they part ways with Chika keeping the woman’s scarf as a reminder of what they’ve been through. I chose this picture to show what the riot looks like. The quote I chose because it sums up the ending of the plot nicely. For the literary criticism lens, I chose psychological. We look at the psychological motivations of the character to find out more about the character. Even though theres only one riot going on, there are many different reactions that different characters have. So using this lens, it can better help analyze the characters. I chose this picture and quote because it takes a look at what Chika is doing, which helps us understand what she is feeling at that time. There were many symbols in this story. One of them being the scarf, which at the end symbolized the bond between the two woman. Chika kept the scarf because she wanted something to remember the woman, the riot, and the time they had together. The woman’s scarf also helped Chika when she was bleeding. I think the scarf also symbolizes friendship, and hope. Chika hopes that she finds her sister. The riot symbolizes violence. It started from the conflict of 2 religions, and then turned into something bigger. When there is violence, people will act in different ways. Some fight it, some leave it, and in this case, some hide from it. In the beginning, when Chika and the woman first meet, they say that they lost their stuff. Chika lost a bag, and the woman lost a necklace. I think those items symbolizes their differences. To lose those items, it represents putting those differences aside. That is why even though they are from different religions, they manage to respect each other and hide together.
The main colours I put for this mind map were black, orange, and white. I did it black and orange to make it look like a riot, or like a fire from the riot. The white was so that the text could be seen clearly. The first ‘slide’ is an overview of all the different topics, including a picture. Then I made it go through all the different topics in different slides, putting that same picture. I did the description text black, and the quote text orange, so that it could be differentiated more easily. For the slides, I made it fill up the page with information, yet also make it simple enough so its not confusing.
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab