Analysis

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “Chinasa” has a linear plot structure. The story looks at some events that happened in the narrator’s life and presents them in chronological order.

The main character is the unnamed narrator. The story also presents Chinasa, a fifteen-year-old girl, whom the narrator takes in during the war and takes care of. 

The physical setting is a town in Nigeria. The action takes place during the Nigerian Civil War, from 1968 to the end of the war a few years later. At the end of the story, the action shifts to 2008 when the narrator is living in her house in Enugu. 

The story is told by a first-person narrator who is also the main character. The narrator is unreliable when she talks about her life during the war. 

The language is neutral and the story has a conversational tone. The use of symbols, metaphors, and similes enhance the story’s meaning.

You can read a more detailed analysis in the following pages.