Language

Style of writing

The language in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “Chinasa” is neutral. The tone is conversational, as if the narrator is talking about her experience during the war to the reader, and the text uses contractions and simple words. For example, when the narrator starts talking about how her father treated her, she then goes back to the experience of the war by saying “Anyway, on that Harmattan morning”, which is a very conversational way of redirecting the topic.

There is not much dialogue and the narrator relates what other characters say through indirect speech, such as: “She said she could not wait to be well enough to help me with the cooking and cleaning” or “my father teased me and said it was not proper for a young woman”. This happens because this...