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Half of a Yellow Sun Digest At the start of Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun, Ugwu is first portrayed as an innocent, uneducated village boy. While working as a houseboy for professor Odenigbo, Ugwu starts to explore his sexuality and receives an education about the world around him. When Biafra is thrown into civil war, the experiences of war force Ugwu to survive leading him to write his novel The World Was Silent When We Died.
Upon entering the university town, Ugwu is amazing by the modern comforts his master, Odenigbo, has.
Coming from a rural village, Ugwu is mystified by the endless supply of running water from a sink and the large amounts of food stored in a refrigerator. Being alone as opposed to sharing space with his family, Ugwu is free to explore his new surroundings and is able to receive an education—given to him by Odenigbo. As time passes, Ugwu begins to learn about the world around him through his education as well as beginning to discover his sexuality while listening to Odenigbo and his mistress Olanna having sex and experimenting in casual sex with a village girl.
Once the Nigerian Civil War breaks out, Ugwu is without the modern luxuries, food, and medicine he has gotten used to while living in the university town.
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Ugwu is in a situation where his security is gone, and where adults—especially Odenigbo and Olanna who were in the elite no longer have any authority and are targets. He is placed into the status of refugee, maturing and humbling him as he is now a target as well.
When Olanna tells Ugwu to teach the refugee children, Ugwu—once a student and a child is able to have his own power and authority by being a mentor to the refugee children as he educates them about the world around them and what the Biafra soldiers are fighting for.
Without his security, Ugwu is target for the enemy, and becomes a target for conscription to fight for Nigeria. Upon being conscripted, Ugwu comes face-to-face what he is capable of.
Being a soldier, he is to be loyal to his officer and the land he is forced to defend, follow orders, and sacrifice himself to his unit. However, being a soldier dehumanizes Ugwu as he is forced to participate in a gang rape. The experience devastates him as he remembers the "cold hate" in the girl's eyes as the other soldiers raped her. Ugwu doesn't tell Odenigbo and Olanna about what he did, due to fearing that they would view Ugwu as coldhearted and callous rather than the young man they watched grow up.
As the Nigerian Civil War comes to an end and Biafra is defeated, Ugwu must come to terms with all that he has faced during the war, having lost family and friends. Throughout Half of a Yellow Sun, excerpts of a book entitled The World Was Silent When We Died. It isn't until the end of the novel where the author of the book is revealed to Ugwu. With the author being Ugwu, the excerpts of the novel show his growth. Ugwu's novel also serves as a coping mechanism as he comes to terms with what he witnessed. This is made especially powerful being how the novel is told through the lens of a young man whose people were targeted; the story truly is Ugwu's to tell, despite how the title was originally Richard's.
The Growth of Ugwu in Half of a Yellow Sun, a Novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. (2022, Apr 11). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-growth-of-ugwu-in-half-of-a-yellow-sun-a-novel-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-essay
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