Language

Style of writing

The language of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “The Headstrong Historian” is formal and descriptive. The author uses long, complex sentences to evoke the thoughts of her characters: “She thought this strange of him, a prosperous man with only one wife, and she worried more than he did about their childlessness, about the songs that people sang, the melodious mean-spirited words.”

The vocabulary is also complex, as the author uses formal and sometimes old-fashioned words such as: “loathed”, “malevolence”, or “weaklings”. The vocabulary also contains Igbo words, such as: “obi”, and “chi”. These provide authenticit...