Adeyemi 2nd Weekly Reflection

 Joshua Singh

Dr. Ellis

EN 376

Second Adeyemi Reflection

One of the benefits the novel’s structure serves is that each chapter follows the perspective of a singular character. This can also highlight the parallels between different characters' realizations of what is happening around them as well as how this realization compares to what they have been taught growing up. More specifically, Amari and Inan’s internal conflictedness stands at odds with their father’s teaching, and their maturation is seen through how they define themselves against him.

For example, Amari does not want to emulate her father’s violence and cruelty, nor does she want to continue in the path of violence and destruction that he has shown her since the beginning of his reign. After she kills one of the captains, the spectators of Orisha applaud them and call Amari “Lionare.” Rather than feeling honored by this, Amari rebukes any of the glorification that would usually accompany being cheered on with a title like that. She feels as if she should be called “‘coward’ or ‘imposter…’ The name is nothing more than a lie” (Adeyemi 260).  She feels ashamed to resort to violence and to take a life, something that she closely associates with her father. It scares her that she could be capable of doing this and even has to mentally dispel her father from her mind as she reconciles her conscience: “A thin whisper of Father’s voice plays in my ears. I wipe him from my mind as I wash the last of the arena blood from my skin” (Adeyemi 261). She does not want to kill like her father, which would be continuing the cycle of violence that he has started, yet she feels torn between doing what is right and completely rejecting violence in an attempt to sever herself from her father. 

Inan similarly feels torn. He feels as if his status as a diviner and the word “maggot” hinder him from achieving his singular goal in life: to become a fit king and please his father. However, the word “maggot” is “A hell [he] can’t escape” (Adeyemi 266). He too is conflicted between knowing that he is diviner and hearing his father’s voice telling him to not falter and continue his oppression. 

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