Characters

The main character in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “Jumping Monkey Hill” is Ujunwa Ogundu. She is a Nigerian woman who is invited to participate in the African Writers’ Workshop. The story looks at some of Ujunwa’s experiences with racism and sexism and how she reacts to them. 

Another central character in the story is Edward Campbell. He is a British professor of African literature and the organizer of the African Writers’ Workshop. Edward has a false and stereotypical image of Africa and he does not accept ideas that do not fit this image, which causes tension between him and the participants at the workshop. Edward also behaves inappropriately towards the female participants and generally shows little respect for people of other genders, sexualities, or cultural backgrounds. 

Ujunwa Ogundu

Outer characterization

Ujunwa Ogundu is the main character of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “Jumping Monkey Hill”. She is a Nigerian young woman who lives in Lagos. We can presume she is attractive because Hilary comments on her “exquisite bone structure” and Edward makes inappropriate remarks to her which suggests he finds her attractive. 

Ujunwa is a writer who has previously worked in banking. She appears to be close to her mother, but not so much to her father.

Inner characterization

On the one hand, much of Ujunwa’s behavior shows she is polite and avoids conflict. For example, during her first meeting with Edward, he asks her a lot of questions but she is not interested in conversation and does not wish to share too much with him: “Ujunwa faked a wide yawn and hoped he would stop talking”. Though Ujunwa finds Edward too insistent, she remains polite and looks for a subtle way to end the conversation without offending him. 

When Edward behaves inappropriately towards her and stares at her breasts, Ujunwa does not react despite the fact that she dislikes his behavior. Moreover, when he makes a suggestive comment about her, Ujunwa even forces herself to laugh and tries to convince herself his comment is excusable: “Ujunwa laughed because it was funny and witty, she told herself, when you really thought about it”. When the same thing happens to the Senegalese woman, however, Ujunwa is disappointed that the woman did...