85 pages • 2 hours read
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Authoritative, judgmental, and pious to a fault, Papa’s fanatically-religious attitude alerts readers to the dangers of intolerance. Although his public displays of pompous devotion coupled with generous monetary gifts to church and community give him a reputation as a virtuous man, his private acts of vicious abuse reveal his true intent—to enforce an isolationist form of religion based on the foreign “colonial” Catholicism he adopted when young. As Kambili notes:
Papa changed his accent when he spoke, sounding British, just as he did when he spoke to Father Benedict. He was gracious, in the eager-to-please way that he always assumed with the religious, especially with the white religious (46).
Papa’s insincere affectations reveal a superficial approach to religion that cannot indefinitely withstand reality’s truths, in this case his own intrinsic ancestral customs. He shuns all other methods of worship and enforces impossible expectations on his family to adhere to new ways, often physically abusing his family in order to break their connection to the old ways.
All family members in Papa’s household exemplify round, dynamic characters—complex, multi-faceted individuals who undergo spiritual transformations, whether positive or negative, initiated by Papa’s unflinching stance on religion and the pivotal visit to Nsukka. Papa breaks, as do his idealized gods, when he loses his grip on his family and life in general.
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Apollo
Apollo
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A Private Experience
A Private Experience
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Birdsong
Birdsong
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Cell One
Cell One
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Checking Out
Checking Out
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Half of a Yellow Sun
Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Danger of a Single Story
The Danger of a Single Story
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Headstrong Historian
The Headstrong Historian
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Thing Around Your Neck
The Thing Around Your Neck
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
We Should All Be Feminists
We Should All Be Feminists
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie