Half of a Yellow Sun

The Book that wrote the man:

The novel is the language of every class. Any man who is hungry to know more, to have an understanding, to remove himself from ignorance thrives on the written word. Those who always argue and strive to know more than the next man, such as Odenigbo’s friends, devours the next man’s words. Half of a Yellow Sun explores identity and how it is constructed and transformed against the tumultuous background of a civil war that brings with it its own identity shift of a nation. Within the novel it is arguably Ugwu, as he his moved through the chaos of Nigeria in the 1960’s with his new family, who absorbs language as a way of life. Literature is the most permanent display of language as an expression of identity that exists, being something that can be both written as well as absorbed. Ugwu becomes obsessed with literature motivated by the intellect of Odenigbo and his friends. He sees language as a means to gain stature and display intelligence. Ugwu is then determined to transform, angry at his personal difficulties with English. As the war progresses or regresses the novel moves through time and we are shown a purposeful shift in Ugwu. It is most importantly through Adichie’s allowance of parts of the novel being from Ugwu’s direct perspective that we come to understand his language and therefore his identity. It is Ugwu’s full absorption of language as a new identity that allows him to tell the story of Biafra and confirm his identity in his own novel.

Ugwu, a young boy from the rural outskirts of Nsukka is determined to learn from his first encounter with master, allowing literature as his teaching tool to shape how he grows up. Ugwu’s aunty escorts him to master’s house where he will work as a houseboy with the confidence that he will “learn everything fast.” Ugwu echoes that he will “learn fast” despite his lack of a traditional education past standard two. As Odenigbo discovers, in unexpected outrage, his father’s inability to pay for the rest of his schooling he vows to put Ugwu through staff school with the lecturers’ children. This begins Ugwu’s introduction to the power of the book as Odenigbo exclaims, “I will give you books, excellent books” in reference to acquiring the right answers of the world. He specifically refers to the history of Africa, a pivotal history that is being reclaimed in the lead up to the Biafran war that fights against colonial constructions of community. Ugwu adopts a fascination for master’s collection of literature even though he does not understand most of what he reads nor understand the conversations of Odenigbo’s friends that unfold with such lyrical rhetoric that they replicate poetry. They do however begin to represent the understanding of a new outlook on life for him with the knowledge of life beyond Nigeria such as Sharpeville and the Cold War. His observations of the world around him fuel a desire for further growth.

Ugwu’s observance as well as cautious curiosity about his master’s friends and family is focused largely on how they express themselves. He judges Olanna on Odenigbo’s first mention of her before even meeting her negatively. He resented how special master thought that she was, forcing him to transgress from his more traditional style of cooking and instead commit to fried rice. It is however Olanna’s magical English that cannot be contested even by master that forces him to forget the curses of pain he wished on her previously. By Ugwu Olanna is described as “easy perfection” with only her positive coconut laced attributes being seen afterwards that need to be pleased at all times. This emphasises how Ugwu’s obsession with language serves as a representation for an identity that he becomes too engrossed with to even dare make eye contact with. When Ugwu is first introduced to Master’s friends it is the way that they talk that he remembers. Mr Johnson stammers, Professor Lehman has a nasal voice, Professor Ezeka sounds as if he speaks in whispers and Okeoma is the voice of a generation with his silencing poetry. It is Miss Adebayo’s voice that causes him resentment as it raises itself unfairly above masters careful English, an english that he is envied to be presented in. She becomes a greater threat when her body language alerts Ugwu to her feelings for master with her hands on his lips and her aggressive laugh. Ugwu notices Odenigbo’s english just as he notices the change in Olanna’s Igbo dialect when she talks to her mother-in-law. According to Aghogho Akpome (2013:30) this begins Ugwu’s control over the depiction of reality, just as a storyteller would have. Ugwu’s description of the University scholars alerts the reader to class differences (Akpome, 2013:30). His observance of language becomes obsessive with words taking on an even greater meaning than what they seem to appear as they represent an intelligence of read people. The intelligence can become a synonym for literature as it represents those who have been schooled.