Half Of A Yellow Sun Narrative Essay

Half of a Yellow Sun shows the trauma of memory on two different levels: on both the level of the author, and on the level of the narrative (De Mey 34). Adichie, the author, did not experience the war herself, but rather inherited the traumatic memory of her parents and grandparents, allowing her to write this novel as her interpretation of their past (De Mey 34). This essay will focus on the second level, through the narrative, and specifically on how the characters of Olanna and Ugwu’s reactions to their experiences of war. In the narrated story, these are the characters who encounter the bulk of the traumatic experiences within the novel. This essay will initially contextualise a quote from the novel, relating to the theme of the embodiment of memory and will then deal with the theory of narrative therapy. Finally, this essay aims to

According to Martin Payne, narrative therapy encourages “richer, combined narratives to emerge from disparate descriptions” of experiences (Payne 7). The strong use of narrative in Half of a Yellow Sun is an essential aspect of the novel, with the narrative being interdependent on the mixture of many different stories being told by a variety of narrators. (De Mey 9). Adichie employs the intersections of these different narrative strategies within the novel as Ugwu writes the story of his experience of the Biafran War, while for Olanna; the narration of her traumas to Ugwu is central to being able to overcome its stifling affects. Through these characters’ experiences with narration, Adichie is able to illustrate its potentially therapeutic effect. “Trauma theory” is fundamentally integrated with the writing of history, with the narration of trauma as a key factor in being able to overcome it (De Mey 55). Adichie therefore affirms the value of narration and writing for the “digestion of the personal and communal past” (De Mey