By Lucas T
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story: “A Private Experience” deals about ethnic and religious conflict and the violence from the dispute between two specific religious groups. Chika and the other woman are of different religions. Even though the riot began due to religious differences, they both choose to put their differences aside and support each other. This image appealed to me because it contains religious elements as well as the world. I chose this quote because Chika learns about the conflict between the Hausa and the Igbo. The conflict in this story is Person vs society because our protagonist Chika must survive against the riot happening outside. I chose this quote because it shows the struggle Chika faced because of the riots and how it hurt her. The story is written in third person limited omniscient because you can only observe Chika’s thoughts. To show this, I used the photo and quote on the mind map. The physical setting for A Private Experience is based in a Nigerian marketplace. When the riot erupts, Chika and the other women refuge in an empty shop. Fear, stress, and uncertainty forms the emotional atmosphere. Chika has never met the woman and doesn’t really understand why the riot occurred. They hide together because they are afraid of the chaos from the riot. The image I chose is of a market, which represents the story’s physical environment at the start. The quote I chose illustrates Chika’s emotional state at the time and where it’s based in Africa. People’s decisions are majorly influenced by experiences in life, so I think the best critical lens is phycological. I picked psychology as my literary critique perspective for this story because I think it’s important to learn more about the character and examine their psychological motivations. Even though there is only one riot going on, different characters have various reactions. As a result, by utilizing this lens, it will be easier to analyze the characters. Just like every character, Chika makes decisions based on her personal motivations. The quote I use perfectly describes this when Chika tries to predict what the woman will ask her based on her assumptions: “she expects the woman to ask her to stop, to come back, not be rash” but to the surprise of Chika, “the woman says nothing, and Chika feels the quiet eyes on her back.” The plot begins with two women hiding together in an abandoned store to avoid the riot. They quickly learn more about one other through a series of flash forwards and flashbacks, and why the riot started in the first place. When the riot stops, they part ways, with Chika keeping the woman’s scarf as a reminder of their encounter. I chose this photograph because this is what the woman would look like with her scarf on. I chose this quote because it effectively explains the plot from the beginning of the story and describes the environment our protagonist is in. In this story, there were a lot of symbols. One of them was the scarf, which, in the end, signified the two women’s friendship. Chika saved the scarf because she wanted a reminder of the woman, the riot, and their time together. The riot symbolizes violence. It began as a dispute between two religions and grew into something much larger. The scarf was also used to help Chika when she was bleeding. I believe it also represents hope because Chika is hoping to get out of the store safely and locate her sister.