Difference social classes in “Apollo” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The short story “Apollo” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie presents a life of Okenwa and his childhood memory. It focuses on the memory of his first love Raphael, the houseboy. Most people think that “Apollo” is about a romantic relationship between the narrator and the houseboy. Actually, this story obviously portrays a difference between two social classes. Even though Okenwa and Raphael are fellow countrymen, their life’s assets are different. Okenwa lead a good life. His parents support him, take good care of him and he is well-educated “My bedroom had bookshelves, stacked with the overflow books” “…and into my father’s car, to be dropped off at school”. The author also implied …show more content…
When Okenwa is sick his parents treat him very well, they brought him medicine and called a doctor “My father brought me Panadol. My mother telephoned Dr.Igbokwe.”. They also look after him very well. They made him a drink, stayed home for a week and created a patient’s altar beside his bed “…watching me drink a cup of Milo that my father made.” “…one of them was home throughout the week that I had Apollo.” “…created a patient’s altar by my bed- on a table covered with cloth…”. While when Raphael got infected they just brought an eye drops for him and commanded him to stay in his room so he would not infect them “Later, my parents drove to the pharmacy in town and came back with a bottle of eye drops, which my father took to Raphael’s room in the boys’ quarters…”. They did not care if he can drop medicine into his eyes. If Okenwa is not there, there would be no one that will help him drop the medicine into his eyes and care about him “He avoided looking at me. “I cannot do it.”” ““I will put the drops in for you,”…”. We also see that while Okenwa parents commanded Raphael to stay in his room because they afraid that they will get infect, when Okenwa got Apollo they stay close to him without fear of infection. This scene even though it shows the love Okenwa had for Raphael, but it also displays the different between two social class in the same