Similarities Between Apollo And The Nothingness Forest

Ananya Thota
Kimiko Sera-Tacorda
World Literature
19 November 2022
The Painful Path to Independence “Apollo” and “The Nothingness Forest” reveal that achieving independence often involves pushing away those that are key to one’s upbringing. Adichie and Ekström make their main characters develop a close relationship with another character that guides them to discover more about themselves and to mature, only to push the relationship away in the end. The reader realizes that obtaining independence is not a natural process where children can be supported by a community, it is often a deliberate and painful act involving pushing people away.
In “Apollo,” Adichie creates a closeness between Raphael and Okenwa, only for Okenwa to push away Raphael,

Using the absolute word “never” to describe the deep feeling of connection, Adichie uses diction in order to convey the immense bond that they created. She illustrates how Okenwa feels a deep connection. The phrase, “recognized myself in another person,” is used to show how Okenwa feels seen and understood by Raphael, in a way he’s never been understood before, which allows him to see himself in another light. When Okenwa sees Raphael contently conversing with a girl after not visiting him while he was ill, the relationship quickly transitions from meaningful to harmful: “He spoke as though I were a child, as though we had not sat together in his dim room. “I’m hungry! Where is my food?’ It was the first thing that came to me, but in trying to be imperious I sounded shrill” (15). The offended tone from Okenwa’s perspective in the simile, “as though I were a child,” shows how Okenwa sees himself

When the girl meets the dog, she immediately feels a sense of comfort with him: “Then she hears something scratching and whining. Scratching and whining and enticing. Like laughing. Like feeling a woolly coat of fur” (102). Ekström uses repetition with “scratching and whining,” in order to portray the tone change. The first time she writes it, it induces fear and apprehension; however, the second time it’s written, it feels soothing due to the addition of the word “enticing.” She also uses a simile to further emphasize the feeling of solace the girl finds in the dog when she says “Like laughing. Like feeling a wooly coat of fur.” The comparison of the dog’s noises to laughing, even though the dog can’t physically laugh, and to a wooly coat of fur, helps the reader understand the comforting role the dog will play in her life. While the protection of the dog is pacifying at first, it becomes restrictive. When the dog feels like the girl is in danger, he thinks, “...she is a foolish and disobedient puppy who has to be carried home to her basket. At that, the child’s fist lands full force right on his soft upper lip... the effect is considerable. The dog