“Flashlight” Student Presentations

Student presentations on “Flashlight” by PVA alum Susan Choi

Presentation 1: Preston Lim

Summary

The story opens with the main character on a beach with her father. Her mother is in a beachside cabin they’ve rented out, but she can’t come because she is sick. Her father tells her he never learned how to swim and says he wants her to act thankful to her mother for teaching her to swim. Those are the last words her father spoke to her.

            She goes to a “child psychologist” who goes over her record in school as well as her past. In the office is a dollhouse, which reminds her of her father, who built one for her. The psychologist, Dr. Brickner, snaps her out of it. She notices a flashlight on his desk, which reminds her of her last night with her dad on the beach. She asks Brickner to turn off the lights and he obliges. Brickner brings up her records, which include larceny. She seems to find nothing wrong with theft, and, as she leaves, steals his flashlight.

What makes it compelling?

I think the complexity and mysteriousness of the characters is what makes it interesting. Particularly Louisa, but also her mother. Though this might not be a common craft tool, I really think it’s what makes the story stand out. The use of flashbacks is also really interesting in this story and gives backstory on why the characters are the way they are.

Louisa’s character is really complex and has gone through a lot more than she should’ve at the age she’s at. One thing I noticed is her contempt for adults- she seems to not really see a reason they should be superior to her. This is shown in the lines ““Close it all the way, please,” Louisa would say in a sharp, grownup tone.” (Choi 3) as well as “The hidden side of her contempt for adults was this pity: that they imagined they understood her and then blundered so proudly, while she had to pretend to be caught.” (Choi 10). Another thing that I felt was really interesting is the way that her father’s death impacted her. He is described as so cautious on pages 17 and 18. The line “He’d been particularly cautious, her father. Full of strange fears.”(Choi 17) stands out. The way that scene was so vivid in Louisa’s mind leads me to believe that that’s what made her so carefree and morally ambiguous. Her father was so cautious, and she sees that as what lead to his death. If he had been more carefree, he might still be alive. This is what made her the very opposite. She steals and defies authority with no regrets. She throws caution to the wind and does what she wants.

Louisa’s mom is also a very odd character. It’s obvious that she loves Louisa, but Louisa is also sure that she doesn’t need the wheelchair. This could just be Louisa being pessimistic, as she is shown to be throughout the story, but I also think it holds some weigh since she is so sure she doesn’t need it. Another thing that’s confusing about the mom is how she tells everyone that Louisa’s dad was kidnapped, whereas Louisa insists it’s not. Does her mom know something that she’s keeping to herself? Is she somehow involved in his death and is using being in a wheelchair as an alibi?

What can I imitate?

Something I noticed about Flashlight is how much foreshadowing there is, combined with vivid flashbacks that let you learn a lot about the characters. The first page and a half is a flashback, but it doesn’t feel like a corny flashback. It’s written in the present tense, which I never really thought of doing for a flashback. I think it makes it feel a lot more real and puts the reader into the flashback, which is definitely something that I could try to do more. Her method of characterization is also something that’s really interesting. It ties into the flashbacks, but it shows you what happened to make Louisa the way that she is via her memories and experiences. I really like that, since it doesn’t describe the characters or even really show you through what they do in the story- it shows you through their experiences and I really think that’s a great way to show the ins and outs of a character.

Discussion Questions

1. On page 19, Louisa’s theory that her mother doesn’t need her wheelchair is confirmed. Why does the author add this detail that confirms Louisa’s suspicions?

2. Why did the author start off the story with a flashback and then revisit the same moment later?

Presentation 2: Lila Mankad

This story starts with a flashback in the present tense, with Louisa, a ten year old girl, taking a walk along the breakwater with her Father at sunset, the Father carrying a flashlight in his hands. The mother is unable to come because she is sick, which Louisa believes she is faking. They have a conversation in which the Father says he is glad her mother took her to swim lessons, and she belligerently insists that she hates swimming. Her father chides her, telling her to be respectful, then the story tells you that this was the last thing he ever said to Louisa and cuts to Louisa lying in bed at night. There is a description about how every night, the mother comes into Louisa’s room with her wheelchair, and Louisa sharply rejects her care and pretty much tells her Mother to go away. 

Then, the story describes Louisa’s visit to a child psychologist that morning. There is a dollhouse that reminds her of the dollhouse her father made her. Dr. Brickner(the psychologist), tries to have a conversation with Louisa to explore her feelings about her father’s death, but Louisa is resistant, and shuts down when he gets to anything “real”. She won’t play with any of his toys or take any of his compliments, but latches onto a seemingly insignificant flashlight, that reminds her of her last walk with her dad. She requests that Dr. Brickner turns off the lights, and when he does she plays with the flashlight as they talk. Dr. Brickner continues to try to talk about her father to no avail, then talks about Louisa’s behavioral problems such as larceny, which Louisa doesn’t understand are wrong. Louisa steals the flashlight, and as she is lying in bed with it that night, comes to an epiphany as she fully realizes that her father is dead. Her aunt and mother discover that she stole the flashlight, confiscate it, and leave her alone in the dark with her realization.

What makes this story compelling?

One thing I found very interesting in this story was how the author created the atmosphere, specifically how they utilized light and darkness. The whole story has a sort of dim feeling throughout, and I think that the descriptions of light or the lack of light contribute to that.

The story starts out with Louisa and her father walking at sunset during her flashback, and right before he dies, we are given this description:

‘Far out over the water, far beyond where the breakwater joins with a thin spit of sand, the sunset has lost all its warmth and is only a paleness against the horizon.’

The sunset losing it’s warmth and becoming pale gives you an almost melancholy feeling, and the reader may subconsciously apply it to Louisa and her father. After his last words are spoken, it is revealed that the scene was a flashback, and Louisa is lying down in bed in the dark.

“Louisa lay awake, staring into the dark. The ceiling showed itself in a narrow stripe of light—first sharp like a blade and then becoming softer and softer—which began at the doorframe, where the door was very slightly cracked open. ”

This passage shifts the atmosphere slightly to uncertainty and fear. It doesn’t come as a surprise when you learn that Louisa is (recently) afraid of the dark. Another thing worth mentioning is how this is our first description of Louisa after her Father’s death, which starkly contrasts with how we saw her at the beginning.

Then, later on in the story when Louisa is in Dr. Brickner’s office, light plays an important role in setting the atmosphere as well. Louisa asks Dr. Brickner to turn off the lights and close the blinds, and when he does, we get this beautiful description.

“The dust, dissipating, glinted erratically as if flashing a code as it crossed the slim rays of afternoon light that were streaming in through the gap where the blinds did not quite meet the wall. When her eyes adjusted, Louisa could see everything, but it was pleasantly dusky, so long as she didn’t look straight into the needles of sun.”

This gives you a calmer sense of atmosphere that seems to match a child psychologist. It makes sense when Louisa finds herself saying the truth about her being scared of the alien movie. 

My last example about the atmosphere is at the very end. Louisa is playing with the stolen flashlight in her bed, when she has her realization that her father is truly dead.  Then, her mother and aunt burst into the room after they finished their conversation about Louisa and expressed sympathy. Louisa freaks out and they attempt to calm her down, then discover that she has stolen the flashlight. 

“Then they did let her alone, though she didn’t see which of them yanked the door shut, leaving her in darkness. ”

This picture gives me a sense of hopelessness, and is the first time it describes Louisa being completely and totally in the dark. It is an unhappy, almost tragic ending to the story.

What can you find to imitate or use in your own writing?

The first thing I noticed when this story ended was the particular feeling/emotion it left me with. However, the author never directly tells you the character’s emotions- they show them not only through their thoughts or actions, but how they are perceiving the world around them. I think this is definitely something that I could learn from, because it really gives you a deeper understanding of the characters and the world.

As I described in my analysis, I think that the atmosphere of the poem is interesting. I had honestly not thought a lot about how to create atmosphere in my writing consciously, so that is definitely something I will try. Subtle details changed how I perceived the whole story which I really loved.

Discussion questions

Why did the author add the uncertainty about Louisa’s father’s death?

The dollhouse was given a lot of time in the story. Why do you think that is? What did it symbolize?

Presentation 3: Luka Neal

Highlighted element: Description

“Flashlight” is a beautifully written story about a young girl who is in shock due to her fathers’ passing. The story is mostly in a third person perspective and centers mainly around the young girl, Louisa, her mother, father, aunt, and psychologist.

In the beginning of this story we are treated to a flashback of a conversation Louisa had with her father, in which she reveals to us that she despises her mother but also that her mother is sick and in a wheelchair. This immediately brings up the question of why she hates her mother rather than feeling sorry for her, a topic that will be brought up later in the story. The middle of the story focuses on an appointment with a child psychologist that Louisa’s aunt took her to. Throughout this appointment, much more is revealed about Louisa. For example, it is assumed that her father passed away because he drowned, but the first person that found Louisa on the beach said that she told them he had been kidnapped. Louisa denies this statement to the point where we are as unsure who to trust just as much as she is. The appointment also focuses on the titular item: a flashlight. There are doll houses and toys of all sorts riddled throughout the office that the psychologist encourages Louisa to play with, but she focuses on the flashlight and only the flashlight that he has on his windowsill. Afterwards, we find out she was drawn to this because her father, a nervous man, always carried one with him in case of emergency.

As mentioned before, Louisa strongly dislikes her mother because according to her she makes up everything, including the fact that she said her father was kidnapped. For most of this story you assume that this is just Louisa being in shock and being unsure of what is real and what’s not. However, at the very end of the story it is revealed that Louisa’s mother was, in fact, lying about having to be in a wheelchair.

The element I chose to highlight was the fairly vague element of description. I chose this because all of my life I have thought that description is one of if not the most important element in building a fictional environment. Not dialogue, not exposition scenes that put you to sleep using boring narration, description. This story uses description in a third person limited way. Instead of describing literally what you see, it describes what you see through the eyes of Louisa, the ten year old protagonist. I like this alot because the whole point of the story is to not know a lot about what others are thinking, and only see things through Louisa’s point of view. I realized a lot while going through this story and highlighting all the descriptive elements, but the main thing was just how biased a description can sound simply by adding words like: “Seemed”, “Believe”, “Thought”, “Wanted”. By using these words, the author very clearly establishes the main character’s perspective in a way that isn’t just outright telling you their feelings or thoughts. Not only does this help convey thoughts in a third person limited perspective, it also clearly shows who is on who’s side.

 This story has an extremely eerie tone that clouds your judgment and makes you unsure of who is telling the truth and who is not. Not only that, but it conveys adults as the very clear villains in a very interesting way, showing them not as reasonable and organized, (although they think they are all those things) but as overpowered people who constantly think they are right. I would also like to make a comparison to “Joker”, a film made in 2019 about a man who is metally ill and constantly fantasizes. I compare the two because both constantly have you asking yourself the question: Did that really just happen? Overall, I would love to implement this air of uncertainty into my stories as well as the despicable way the parents are portrayed.

In conclusion, this story, although short, is extremely moving and the way it shows the main character’s psyche is not only confusingly eerie, but also kind of endearing. It gives a look into just how uninformed you are as a child and how that can influence your opinion about not only the adults around you, but everyone around you.

Discussion questions:

1. Who do you think the author had in mind as an audience when she wrote this? Would it be kids or adults?
2. Why do you think the author used the structure she did? What effect do you think the flashbacks had on the plot as a whole?

Presentation 4: Zella Price

 The story starts off with a young girl named Louisa recounting the last conversation she had with her father, who drowned when they were walking along the seaside. Now she lives with her mother, aunt and uncle. Her mother is sick and has to use a wheelchair, but Louisa believes that she is faking it. One day they take her to a child psychologist but tell her it has to do with school. She is very reluctant to talk with him and quickly figures out that it has nothing to do with school. He tells her that she has counts of defiance, disruptive behavior, deception, peer-to-peer conflict, tardiness, and truancy. It is also revealed that she has a history of stealing. As she leaves the appointment, she steals a flashlight off his desk and is later confronted by her aunt and mom about it. In the end, her mom stands up which reveals that she is in fact faking it.

 The plot of the story (including the way its set up) is extremely interesting, and pulls you in right away. The fact that it starts off with a conversation helps to get you interested, and then when its followed by the fact that the conversation was the last she had with her father, it pulls you in even more because you want to know what happened to her father. The fact that her fathers’ fate wasn’t revealed until quite late in the story gives you motivation to keep reading.

 The dialogue also played a very big part in how interesting the story was. Not only did it add depth to the characters, but it also helped to greatly advance the plot. A lot of important information is revealed through dialogue, helping to deliver it in a very interesting way. But if I’m going to mention dialogue, then I can’t forget about dialogue tags! Dialogue tags are extremely important when it comes to adding more detail to a scene and can also deliver important information. They help to add context and give you an idea of how the dialogue was delivered, as well as detailing any actions done along with the dialogue. For example, the dialogue tag in the line “’Louisa,’ Dr. Brickner said, coming around his desk toward her and propping his rear on the edge, so that his suit jacket, which was already rumpled, bagged up at his shoulders and looked even worse, ‘do you know what ‘shock’ is?’” helps us visualize the scene and adds context. In the line ‘“Well, let’s see what they wrote on your form. ‘Defiance, disruptive behavior, deception, peer-to-peer conflict, tardiness, truancy, larceny—’”, Louisa’s behavioral problems are revealed through the dialogue, rather than them just telling us at the beginning of the story “Louisa has had problems with defiance, disruptive behavior, deception, peer-to-peer conflict, tardiness, truancy, and larceny.” (which would’ve been bland and off-putting) This set of lines also reveals important, new information that progresses the plot, as well as helping us understand Louisa’s character more.

 I would love to be able to recreate how amazing the author is able to make the dialogue sound. In some stories, the dialogue is just quite bland, or sounds out of place. I think the reason that the dialogue in this story is so good is because the author makes it sound very natural and real. I also really love how real the characters feel, particularly Louisa and Dr. Brickner. I also feel that the author was able to almost perfectly capture the out-of-place feeling that a mentally ill child almost constantly has. I think they did both of these things using dialogue and actions. For example, the way Dr. Brickner complimented Louisa and called her a smart girl and “buttered her up” is a thing lots of people tend to do to younger children in an attempt to make them warm up to you. They were also able to encapsulate the awkward feeling of talking to an adult about mental health, as well as the way some adults talk to you as if you’re a dog, or a toddler. I think one way they achieve this is by not trying to cram too much information into the dialogue. When you do that, the conversation tends to sound unrealistic and stiff. She also avoids using bland and overused dialogue tags, which also tends to make the conversation stiff and boring since you have no idea how the lines were spoken, or if there were any actions delivered along with the lines. In addition to that, she avoids using commonly overused words, and instead uses vivid and sensory ones. Overall, I think that the story was very interesting, and there were lots of techniques that you could take away from it.

Questions:

How does the author attempt to make Louisa a likeable character?

What are some ways the author reveals important information without directly stating it?

“Apollo” Student Presentations

Student presentations on “Apollo” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Presentation 1: Cayenne Souknary

1

When Okenwa goes to visit his parents for lunch, he realizes how much time has passed since he last saw them. While he was there, he finds out that one of their old helping hands got in trouble with the law. Okenwa starts to remember this man, Raphael. Raphael taught Okenwa how to fight and they started to spend time together more often without Okenwa’s parents knowing. One day Raphael shows up to work with a sort of pink eye called Apollo. Okenwa’s parents get scared and tell Raphael to stay in his room and take the medicine they go out to get him. Okenwa has to stay away from his friend by order of his parents, but he goes to visit Raphael anyway. When in his room, Okenwa sees that Raphael hadn’t been taking the eye drops he needed, so he took it upon himself to care for his friend until he got better, and in that time they bonded a bit. A few days after Raphael gets better, Okenwa gets Apollo. His parents drill him with who could’ve given it to him, so in order to protect Raphael, he lies and says it was a classmate. He is then told to stay in his room until he gets better. One day, while he is still recovering from Apollo, his parents go out, and Okenwa takes this time to talk to Raphael. He uses the excuse of being hungry to talk, but Raphael tells him to leave. Okenwa asked him why he didn’t visit him when he was sick, but Raphael ignores this and instead asks him what he wants to eat. In this time, Okenwa’s parents come back home and Okenwa, feeling betrayed by Raphael starts crying and lies to his parents that Raphael pushed him. Looking back, it seems Okenwa regrets telling that lie.

The major events that make up the plot were Raphael getting Apollo, Okenwa getting Apollo from Raphael, and then the lie at the end that got Raphael thrown out of their house. Raphael getting Apollo is the build up to the conflict because it sets off the next string of events, which was Okenwa getting Apollo. The climax or crisis of the story would be when Okenwa lies to his parents and says that Raphael pushed him because after that point, the story ends. It might feel weird that the climax is at the very end, but there is a resolution which is the very last paragraph.

To me Okenwa seems like a pretty naïve person. The way he acts is with empathy, and expects the same in return gives me the impression that he hadn’t yet experienced real life that much, seeing as he seems extremely sheltered. In the one scene at the end, while he was still hurting, he seemed to regret not speaking out to help Raphael. This shows to me that even after he grew up, Okenwa is still somewhat the boy he used to be.

2

The thing that drew me into the story the most was the way emotions were expressed. The details was that there were no overly big words to express the emotions. I know what the feelings are because of how the words are used to describe it. In one part where Okenwa was describing being a sort of hero and defeating the imaginary bad guys, I was drawn into the scene because when I was young, I too would imagine being a hero and protecting people against the bad guys, so I was able to be present with him. And the description of it was so simple that I didn’t have to wreck my brain to relate. (Pink)

Also the feeling of betrayal over the smallest thing that seems small, but it has such a big impact because when Okenwa asked Raphael why he didn’t visit him, it showed such a level of intimacy that someone wouldn’t really like to show because it is betrayal. And again when Raphael ignores the question and instead asks Okenwa what he wants to eat shows him belittling Okenwa’s emotions, which can put me in the scene seeing as it’s a common feeling whether or not people mean to make you feel that way. (Green) Another thing that stood out and made the story compelling to me were the details of minor things, such as the smell of Vicks that I, as a reader, can smell, so it puts me more into the story. (Blue)

3

In my own writing, I would like to be able to write out emotions without having to be extremely elaborate on how the character felt. I love how in the story, the emotions were stated, but also described so you know what emotion they were feeling without guessing, but still could understand how deep that feeling of the emotion was. Also the description of smell was used, and I feel that smell is one of the senses lacking in my writing because it never occurs to me when I’m writing, but now I see how much of an impact it has on the reader.

Presentation 2: Jupiter Zimmerman-Yang

Elements Tracked:

• Guilt
• Rising action

This story is riddled with the weighing sorrow of guilt, whether that be Okenwa’s chronic guilt that is somewhat impressed on him by his parents for not being able to give them grandchildren, his guilt in keeping a lie for years and years, his residual feeling of responsibility for Raphael’s current position, or even Raphael’s lack of guilt regarding Apollo.

Each time I drove away, on Sunday afternoons after a big lunch of rice and stew, I wondered if it would be the last time I would see them both alive, if before my next visit I would receive a phone call from one of them telling me to come right away. The thought filled me with a nostalgic sadness that stayed with me until I got back to Port Harcourt.

There is emphasis in the idea of his parents dying because, as revealed later in the story, Okenwa has many loose ties from his childhood that lead him to regard certain things with either shame or resentment. In the beginning of the story, it is hinted in the line,

But I remembered. Of course I remembered Raphael,

that something had happened to Okenwa regarding Raphael. Since his mother was unaware of any reason Okenwa could have had to remember Raphael and believed Okenwa didn’t even remember who Raphael was, we as readers can sense that whatever this memory is, it contains something that Okenwa is either ashamed or regretful about.

The nature of the “prying” questions that Okenwa receives from his parents suggest that Okenwa may be gay. The questions revolve around him not having a family of his own or a girlfriend to introduce to his parents. It is not specified whether he has a boyfriend or not, but if he does, his parents are unaware. The toll this guilt takes on Okenwa is a prevalent focus in beginning of the story. In order to “make up” for not having a family, Okenwa feels that he has a larger obligation to visit his parents and does so frequently.

Another source of guilt that I found in Okenwa’s character was the responsibility he seemed to inherit from his parents’ actions towards Raphael. In the story, Okenwa’s mother is a very harsh woman who is not apprehensive upon insulting the numerous houseboys she employed. Even though Okenwa did not perform his mother’s actions himself, he is directly connected to her and perhaps felt ashamed for the things his mother did.

Okenwa’s guilt for lying to his parents about how he fell on the stairs seems to be the main regret of the story, as it occurred during the climax. Not only does Okenwa harbour the secret he kept from his parents, but he also most likely believes that if he hadn’t lied about the stair incident, causing his parents to fire Raphael, perhaps the terrible things that his parents described Raphael went through (being beaten, humiliated, threatened) would not have occurred. To possess the feeling of responsibility for something so terrible is a heavy burden to bear – whether or not it really is the person’s fault. In the end of the story when we witness Okenwa’s lie, everything becomes painfully clear.

Before we meet Raphael in Okenwa’s flashback, we are given context on Okenwa’s feelings towards his childhood environment. He describes it as judgemental and neglectful, as shown in the following quotes:

Throughout my childhood, I worried about not being quick enough to respond when they spoke to me.

and

I read books only enough to satisfy them, and to answer the kinds of unexpected questions that might come in the middle of a meal— What did I think of Pip? Had Ezeulu done the right thing? I sometimes felt like an interloper in our house.

Because Okenwa was not satisfied with the attention he received from his parents, he was emotionally vulnerable to the first person he felt that he could connect to. This person was Raphael. Okenwa had a deep interest in kung fu, and spent his free time practicing in his room, so when he discovered that Raphael shared this interest, Okenwa finally was able to experience what it was like to feel akin to someone. This is very significant because, as it states in the story,

I was twelve years old and had, until then, never felt that I recognized myself in another person,

this was the first time he had felt this way.

Okenwa felt that his source of happiness in that time of his life came from the relationship he had with Raphael.

It was after school, with Raphael, that my real life began.

This shows that Okenwa was at least partially dependent on their friendship because much of his happiness derived from those interactions. This rising action primes the reader for the crisis because Okenwa will lose more in the crisis than if he did not depend on Raphael.

He opened his eyes and looked at me, and on his face shone something wondrous. I had never felt myself the subject of admiration. It made me think of science class, of a new maize shoot growing greenly toward light. He touched my arm. I turned to go.

The quote above shows that they both connected and that Okenwa was not the only one benefitting from the relationship. Raphael wanted to express his gratitude to Okenwa for putting in the eyedrops. It is interesting to note that this is the first time deliberate affection is shown between them, and it was Raphael who was the one to touch Okenwa’s arm instead of the other way around. The reason why I find this interesting is because for most of the story Okenwa is the one to show affection, but in this scene he is the one to turn away. Raphael’s affection in this scene creates a balance in the relationship, since in the scene preceding the crisis, Raphael rejects Okenwa.

Okenwa wanted to believe that Raphael would come and visit him, but Raphael never did because he was – or was trying to be – indifferent to the fact that Okenwa had taken care of him when he had Apollo. This affected Okenwa greatly, starting with a disappointment that shifted to exasperation and then to anger. The following passage clearly represents the dependency Okenwa had on Raphael.

I wished that he would come and see me. Surely he could pretend to be putting away a bedsheet, or bringing a bucket to the bathroom. Why didn’t he come? He had not even said sorry to me. I strained to hear his voice, but the kitchen was too far away and his voice, when he spoke to my mother, was too low.

Okenwa took advantage of his parents’ absence one day and went outside to find Raphael talking to Josephine, a girl who worked for Professor Nwosu. Noticing Raphael’s abashed and shy manner, Okenwa became even more upset with Raphael and decided to interrupt the conversation with something that would direct Raphael’s attention towards him. But the kind of attention Okenwa received was demeaning because Raphael was pushing Okenwa away with the condescending tone implied in his voice:

He spoke as though I were a child, as though we had not sat together in his dim room.

We see things start to escalate when Okenwa first feels anger towards Raphael because anger towards someone a person cares for generates tension. Okenwa was already embarrassed about caring for Raphael when his feelings were not reciprocated, but when Okenwa tripped on the stairs and began to cry, that embarrassment was exacerbated, causing him to be at an emotional climax that determined the overall climax in the story. Okenwa’s emotions overflowed and prevented him from making thoughtful decisions.

I stayed on the ground, a stone sunk in my knee. “Raphael pushed me.”

Okenwa’s deliberate lie is the climax in the story. It was at that point that Raphael’s power over Okenwa became so strong that it overthrew all rationale in his mind. That was most likely the part that Okenwa – as an adult – remembers over and over and regrets deeply.

The rising actions in this story increased as Okenwa’s emotions for Raphael deepened and changed gradually. Those emotions cumulate and intensify throughout the story until the crisis, which is where all of the tension releases and the characters are left to a situation that can no longer be remedied or manipulated.

The resolution is well-defined despite the hollow feeling it evokes. Adichie ended the story at a place that suggests the completion of Okenwa and Raphael’s relationship. While the reader may be disappointed about how their relationship ends (because it is implied in the place that the story ends that this is the last time Okenwa ever interacts with Raphael), we are also satisfied because it is a clean, definite ending.

Presentation 3: Irene Roddy

An Analysis of Plot on the Subject of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Apollo

The story, Apollo, begins with us meeting the main character, Okenwa, who is a seemingly middle-aged man. I can tell this because of the line, “They had grown slower with the passing years, and their faces lit up at the sight of me and even their prying questions—“When will you give us a grandchild? When will you bring a girl to introduce to us?”—no longer made me as tense as before.”. This shows his age because parents typically begin begging for grandchildren around middle-age if they do not already have some. He also talks about his parents being much older, and that is present when he talks about being the only child to his parents and how his mom thought she was in menopause and not pregnant. Okenwa visits his parents often, and they begin to tell stories, which is odd for them because “Fifteen years earlier, my parents would have scoffed at these stories. My mother, a professor of political science, would have said “Nonsense” in her crisp manner, and my father, a professor of education, would merely have snorted, the stories not worth the effort of speech.”, making them out to be very professional and stuck up. One day however, they tell a story about Raphael, a former houseboy of theirs that was arrested for thievery. This spirals Okenwa into a long flashback story. This story starts when he was young, but older than third grade, and was afraid of his parents, because he did not like books, he liked kung-fu instead. Raphael also liked kung-fu and the two boys grow close. One day, Raphael gets Apollo, and against his parent’s orders, Okenwa visits Raphael. Okenwa gets the Apollo from Raphael, and his parents forbid him from visiting his charge out of anger. Okenwa’s parents go out for the night and he adventures into the house for the first time, he finds Raphael with a girl, to which he feels betrayed. He falls on his slippers and lies, blaming his injury on Raphael pushing him, and his parents fire him.

This story was compelling and interesting to read for many reasons. Beginning with structure, I think the writer gives good, detailed backstory for what is necessary. They tell us that Okenwa’s parents were very strict in their adult years, and were very intellectual people, they did not tolerate childish play, however in their age they have “this new childhood of old age.”. The story itself, however, was interesting and kept me wanting more because I was waiting for the other hat to drop the whole time. I wanted to know what happened to Raphael and why he was robbing things now. I was waiting for the day he messed up and he was fired. The ending was not expected at all, and I did not expect Okenwa to turn on Raphael like that, and that’s what makes this story so good, it wasn’t just a story, it was very real and human. People turn on other people and then people return the energy, and you can feel this in the story because of the language, both verbal and body, that is used throughout.

 If we were to imitate anything from this story, I would want it to be how the author was able to provide details that were essential without having to show us, there was a very good balance of show not tell and tell not show. The passage of time and fluidity of the story is also something I think we could learn. The biggest thing I want to imitate from this story though, is the humanity of the story. This story, and I mentioned this in the paragraph about what was compelling, was very relatable and human. Although the setting is somewhere I do not understand or am familiar with, I understand how Okenwa felt when Raphael betrayed him, when its written, “Raphael said something that I could not hear, but it had the sound of betrayal”, I felt that and understood the position Okenwa found himself in. Aside from the fact that he is seemingly young, he gets back at Raphael for being mean to him, and that is human nature. The universal humanity of the core feelings of this story is the major thing I want to imitate from this story.

I analyzed the plot, which broken down simpler than the summary is, Okenwa visits his family and they tell him about Raphael, a troubled old houseboy who started rough. Then in a series of flashbacks, we learn that Okenwa and Raphael were close until Raphael caught Apollo and gave it to Okenwa. Raphael betrays Okenwa at the end and get fired. However, the plot is much deeper than the summary. The plot is the summary but with all the extra details in, like how he talks about his parents being very strict, and the lines,

I worried, too, that I did not care for books.

And

What I loved was kung-fu.

Which added to the overall plot, because that’s how Raphael and Okenwa get close, but it was not important enough to be added in the summary with any kind of highlight. Other details like this included:

“I had Apollo in Primary 3,” I said. “It will go quickly, don’t worry. Have you used the eye drops this evening?”

This shows us that Okenwa wanted to find a reason to help Raphael, and

Still, I humored them, and half listened to their stories.

Which showed Okenwa’s dedication and love for his family.

                  Discussion Questions:
1) Is what Okenwa did to Raphael justified, considering his firing led him to a life of crime?

2) Why do you think the parents became looser with age? Did the mother feel regret?

3) Who is the main character?