Point of View

The novel is narrated primarily in third-person omniscient point-of-view, with the focus almost exclusively on the protagonist, Adah Ofili-Obi. The narrator tells Adah's story as she grows up from precocious child to young adult and emigrates from Nigeria to England, presenting her thoughts and feelings as she contends with numerous conflicts. In the early chapters, the narrator effectively captures the voice of a child as Adah struggles to convince her parents to allow her to attend school. “If not for Ma, Pa would have seen to it that I started school with Boy” (9), she thinks, making it clear that she prefers her mother to her father because he is generally more permissive. The narrator adopts a congenial tone, employing casual language like, “You know” (7), and editorializing about Adah's life with statements like “The day's work! Jesus! Her day started at four-thirty in the morning” (17).

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