In life we are never aware of the outcomes of our consequences, but when we face our consequences we feel remorse towards the ones we hurt. “Cell One” focuses on the out-of-control crime and the corrupt criminal system in Nigeria by telling the story of a boy’s stay in jail. When someone is taken into custody, things start to change for the good. Unfortunately, the narrator’s brother, Nnamabia, was one of those taken into prison as guilty of theft. In “Cell One” the author Chimimanda Adichie uses imagery, point of view, and tone to show how change in perspective and power make us realize the consequences of our actions.
Adichie uses point of view to portray how her mother has a bias relationship with her daughter and son. People all over the world are well aware about the disadvantages of being a certain shade of a color. Today in fact colorism is a huge problem and it occurs in “Cell One” plenty of times. The reading reveals that people are favored when their light skinned. In the short story Nnamabia inherited his mother's skin color, while Adichie did not. In “Cell One” the author says, “When my mother took us to the market, traders would call out: 'Hey madam, why did you waste your fair skin on a boy and leave the girl so dark?” This shows that Nigerian men perceive fair skin are favored more. Many people in our society can relate to this because many people with lighter skin are well respected than people with a darker shade. For example, many of my friends came by a situation where they were in line and they were served before a girl with a darker skin tone. This shows how our society can also be biased towards different shades of people. Though Adichie's mother has plenty of love towards her it isn't the same amount of love she has for Nnamabia, in the short story reading Adichie explains how her mother continuously defends Nnamabia she says: “… my mother had lied to the police for Nnamabia!” - this shows how Adichie's mother will go to any limits to protect her son. But the author Adichie believes that if that was her in that scenario she would have been treated way differently. Overall though Adichie has a relationship with her mother, she believes its drifting apart due to the fact that her mother is constantly defending her brother.
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Adichie uses imagery to show us how her brothers perspective alters as soon as he sees how corrupt the criminal system is in prison. Nnamabia was placed in prison because of his continuous thefts. Now that Namibia is placed in prison he has lost his power in authority, and the prison guards are now the ones with power. Adichie demonstrates how Namibia is terrified of prison, she says “they had pulled corpse out of cell one” this tells us that Nnamabia was horrified of prison when he saw what was being pulled out of cell one. Nnamabia had thought prison was a chill place where nothing crazy is capable of occurring there, but the corpses have forever altered his view on prison. You’d probably think after what Nnamabia had done to get himself in prison makes him a bad person, but luckily he changes throughout the short story. Adichie explains to us how Nnamabia was capable of saving an old man's life, ”he was hurt and I had to offer my help” Adichie demonstrates how Nnamabia changes in prison. Nnamabia risks his life in order to save a man's life and this tells us that Nnamabia took responsibility for his actions, and wanted to change for the good. Adichie tells us that even though prison seemed horrifying to Nnamabia he started adapting to it overtime.
Lastly, Adichie uses tone to show how disappointed his mother is when he disappoints her. In life mothers are always there for their children regardless of their actions to comfort them, but when the actions involve the mother. She is torn apart and her children feel remorse towards her. In “Cell one” the author Chimamanda demonstrates how Nnamabia's perspective changed when he found out how furious and sad his mother was when he disappointed her. Nnamabia's mom wants to drive everyday just to see Nnamabia. The guard at the prison tells Nnamabia's parents, “You cannot raise your children properly — all of you people who feel important because you work at the university — and when your children misbehave you think they should not be punished. You are lucky they released him” (Adichie). Even though Nnamabia is in Jail due to his horrible decisions due to peer pressure, he begins to see how his negative actions could affect his parents. Initially he thought he was smart while in prison, almost strong enough to not be touched by others, but that changes when the old father of a fugitive is put into prison. Adichie's mother says “Nnamabia was with me” adichie's mother lied in order to protect her son from prison. Though she has seen all the things Nnamabia has done, she believes that her son isn't that person and keeps her mindset that her son is an innocent child and is not a fugitive.
Though a person can commit a harsh crime, we must never judge the person off of that crime. In “Cell One” we are taught that there is more of a person than the crimes they have committed. Nnamabia has taken fault for his thefts, and even offered help for an old man in need of help and that reflects on how he grew intellectually and emotionally throughout the short story. Relationship bias occurs very often but we should never favor a person more than another person because of the shade of their skin. What makes “Cell one” such an amazing story is that it conveys many social and political issues such as corruption, harsh criminal system, colorism and class into a heart touching short story.
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