Throughout the book, I developed the idea that Papa’s expectations, rules, and strictness on Kambili, deprives her of having an outside social life. Kambili never has to solve a problem on her own, since she follows the rules; she can't think for herself. Papa treats her like she isn’t a kid, as if she was a mini adult that knew all the “right” answers. Kambili has the experience of living in Enugu, where she is silent and if she spoke up and said something wrong she is abused for it, however when she was in Nsukka with Aunty Ifeoma's family, she was coaxed into expanding her ideas and being forced to talk back. Now she has to chose between the two people she loves, Father Amadi and Papa. Even though she loves Papa he makes her feel unwanted …show more content…
Jaja and Kambili first discover freedom and joy there, and they don’t want to leave, finally seeing how different their family is from Ifeoma’s, realizing how unhealthy their own family is. Kambili is brought out of her silence shell, entering a new life in which she can be free to say what she want’s without being judged or abused. When she got to Nsukka, Aunty Ifeoma told Father Amadi that she “was worried about [Kambili], that she could not hold a conversation with even the children upstairs. But she didn’t ask me to take you [to the soccer field]” implying that it was purely Father Amadi’s choice to help her, he knew what was right and what needed to be done (280). Because of his influence Kambili “smiled, [ran] and laughed. [Her] chest was filled with something like bath foam. Light.” that being said, she finally overcame her fears showing that she can be strong and confident on her own (180). By the end of the book right before Father Amadi leaves for Germany, Kambili went up to him and said, “I love you” implying that over the course of the time at Aunty Ifeoma's, it transformed her into a person where she could express her feelings, making her feel more free and open (276). Kambili is finally finding value in herself from being with Father Amadi. I think the moment when she tells Father Amadi she loves him is important because he doesn't say I love you back directly, but in his letters later talks about her self-worth, maybe encouraging her to love herself first. He wanted to persuade Kambili into believing in herself and making sure she has her own opinion in life. By the end of the book, Kambili is freed by the combination of Amadi’s influence and Ifeoma's house in “Nsukka [which] could free something deep inside your belly that would rise up to your throat and come out as a freedom song. As laughter” (299). She loved the sensational feeling and “wanted to leave with Father
Kamara’s story does give a glimpse of what it is like to be a part of this conflict, but this is her story as a civilian. Through her inner thoughts, Kamara describes the feelings of a civilian running away from the rebels. She had encountered the rebels when they burned down her home and when they cut off her hands. After being injured by the rebels, she tries to escape to...
In the novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the author, Rebecca Skloot, tries to convince the audience that her argument regarding, Henrietta and her cells is worth thinking about. Skloot argues that the woman whose body contained these life-changing cells deserved to be recognized. While trying to prove her side of the argument, Skloot uses logos within the novel to emphasize to the audience just how important her cells are, by providing the science behind the cells and their accomplishments.
Eugene seems very self centered and given his description of the book he seems to care much about his appearance and his place in society. While in Aunt Ifeoma's home Kambili thinks about an event in Jaja’s past after the Aunt asks Jaja what had happened to his small finger as it was devastated,”When he was ten, he had missed two questions on his catechism test...papa took him upstairs...came out supporting his left hand with his right”(Adichie 145). Here it is apparent just how much he cares for his self image. Jaja did not manage to get to the top spot in his class, thus would directly affect Eugene as his kids would not be just as revered as himself leading to his self image being lowered. He hates this, this feeling of second best. He feels
On page 276 Kambili had confessed her love for Father Amadi and he had said he wasn’t the one for her. On the same page Kambili said “ He was wrong. He was so so wrong.” This shows anger because Kambili has so much love for Father Amadi and she was so sad and frustrated about how he reacted to her confession. In the quote you can also see how Kambili was frustrated because she kept telling herself that Father Amadi was wrong about his decision. The next trait the Kambili is grief. On page 298 Aunty Ifeoma and Father Amadi moves away to different countries and Eugene was poisoned by Mama. A quote from this page states “ I asked the new family to come in.” This goes back to Horace’s quote because In the beginning of the book Kambili never really felt grief or any other emotions because of Eugene. The quote also tells how Kambili had grieved over Aunty Ifeoma moving away because she asked the current owner of Aunty Ifeoma’s old flat can she come
In paragraph 7 Douglass is starting to hate his life, which makes him eager to hear people talk about slavery. “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead…” (Douglass, 103) “While in this state of mind, I was eager to hear any one speak of slavery.” (Douglass, 103)
in the village. He also thinks that he can be able to things without others help. In
Throughout the novel the theme of blood is often mentioned. The blood has various meanings, but overall it signifies part of his identity. It is Bính’s blood that grounds him to his origins and I argue that it represents his life in Vietnam as something that he can never run away from. Vietnam will follow him wherever he goes and for that reason he will never quite fit in anywhere else.
Kamara's emotional disability from witnessing gruesome murders has strengthened her to plant a positive change in the world. Both characters made a difference in society, but Kamara channeled her strength after seeing, feeling, and hearing pain. Beah physically sees deaths in his own hands from killing others but he is desensitized to murder. Beah is brought up to accept that murdering is a norm and that there is no sympathy in killing people. During the war, he does not have the emotional disability that impaired Kamara. He is unable to rationalize taking innocent lives and therefore, cannot gain moral strengths. In contrast, Kamara is not numbed to this atrocity. Her strength comes from seeing the harsh reality that ignites her desire to change society. Kamara optimistically stated, "We had an important purpose: to help raise awareness of my country's problems" (Kamara and McC...
In the novel The Immoral Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the author tells the miraculous story of one woman’s amazing contribution to science. Henrietta Lacks unknowingly provides scientists with a biopsy capable of reproducing cells at a tremendusly fast pace. The story of Henrietta Lacks demonstrates how an individual’s rights can be effortlessly breached when it involves medical science and research. Although her cells have contributed to science in many miraculous ways, there is little known about the woman whose body they derived from. Skloot is a very gifted author whose essential writing technique divides the story into three parts so that she, Henrietta
America in the mid to early nineteenth century saw the torture of many African Americans in slavery. Plantation owners did not care whether they were young or old, girl or boy, to them all slaves were there to work. One slave in particular, Frederick Douglass, documented his journey through slavery in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Through the use of various rhetorical devices and strategies, Douglass conveys the dehumanizing and corrupting effect of slavery, in order to show the overall need for American abolition. His use of devices such as parallelism, asyndeton, simile, antithesis, juxtaposition and use of irony, not only establish ethos but also show the negative effects of slavery on slaves, masters and
He constantly attempts to control her and enforce his goals on her. For example, Papa pushed Kambili to constantly study in her room until she was ranked first in her class, even when it halted her social life completely (Adichie, 49-51). When Kambili finally earns her number one ranking, she falls “asleep hugging close the image of Papa’s face lit up” and “the sound of Papa’s voice telling [her] how proud of [her] he was” (Adichie, 52-53). Kambili’s goal to become the highest ranked student in her class was motivated by Papa’s wishes and expectations rather than Kambili’s true desires. Further on, Kambili dreams of laughing. She says: “I dreamed that I was laughing, but it did not sound like my laughter, although I was not sure what my laughter sounded like. It was cackling and throaty and enthusiastic, like Aunty Ifeoma’s” (Adichie, 88). Kambili slowly starts to realize that she does not have to be miserable her entire life. After she spends time with Aunty Ifeoma, her more expressive side comes to light. Later in the novel, Kambili laughs out loud, showing her progression down the road to her freedom. As Kambili spends time with Father Amadi, she is surprised by the sound of her own laughter: “I laughed. It sounded strange, as if I were listening to the recorded laughter of a stranger being played back. I was not sure I had ever heard myself laugh. ‘Why did you become a priest?’ I blurted out,
The persuasive attempts in both literary works produce different results. The effectiveness of the mother’s guidance to her daughter is questioned since the girl cannot recognize the essence of her mother’s lesson. Despite that, the mother’s beneficial instruction serves as a standard for the daughter to reflect her future behaviors in order to live up to the community’s expectations. On the other hand, Anne’s value of candid expression and lasting relationship dissuades her from obliging to her family’s meaningless duty to place her love and interest above to experience fulfillment in life.
Some may say that Kambili’s coming of age journey started with her Aunt Ifeoma subtle influence but I believe that her transition began with the visit to her grandfather.(65) Throughout the story we haven’t seen her once thought of going against her father’s word. Both of the kids was o...
In the beginning of the story, Kambili always support, believe, and follow Papa’s religion closely and didn’t mind if Papa acted violently because of the religion. She has never asked or questioned her father about anything in life as her father stated that questioning wasagainst the religion. Due to the totalitarian structure of the family and strict scheduling that her father created, she was shy, quiet and an obeying person. She had little to no interactions with classmates and the society as a whole
Kambili describes how Papa explains to her and Jaja they will visit their grandfather: “Kevin will take you. Remember, don’t touch any food, don’t drink anything. And, as usual, you will stay not longer than fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes” (Adichie 61). While Kambili listens to her father inform her that she must not touch the food or stay longer than fifteen minutes, reveals Kambili's initial doubts about Papa-Nnukwu. She wants to express her feelings; however, she knows her father would not accept her true thoughts and feelings. The external conflict exhibits the limitation her father places on, not just her but her entire family, demonstrates the internal conflict between her feelings and what she should do to satisfy her father. In addition to her not being allowed to visit her grandfather, Kambili’s father finds out that she had stayed in the same house as her Papa- Nnukwu. At