The End of the Modern Status Quo in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

Abstract

In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun, Richard is a British expatriate and the only non-Nigerian living through the Biafran War. His experiences throughout the novel force him to abandon modern literary and historical features to adopt the anxieties of postcolonialism, or so I argue in this paper. I start by analyzing how literature vaguely addresses the presence and purpose of modern discourse in postcolonial narratives. Then I examine how Richard relates to the rest of the characters. I conclude that Richard represents the modern status quo that should necessarily transfer its power to the impossibilities and frustrations of postcolonial literature. A modern identity, therefore, proves to be futile in a postcolonial world.