The narrator

Outer characterization

The main character in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “Chinasa” is the unnamed narrator. The narrator is a Nigerian woman in her 70s who lives in Enugu, Nigeria. The narrator’s parents and some of her extended family have died during the war. She is not married and does not have any children.

She tells the story of her life during the war when she was in her 30s. At that time, she was a literature teacher who lost her job because of the war. Before that, she attended Teachers Training College. During the war, she lived in a house she shared with two other families after her father’s house was destroyed.

Inner characterization

The narrator is affected by the war in which she has lost her family: “two years into the war and my pa...