Half of a Yellow Sun

Half of a Yellow Sun

• Genre: Fiction; historical
• Originally Published: 2006
• Reading Level/Interest: Grades 9-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length: 37 chapters; approx. 543 pages; approx. 18 hours on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: Multiple viewpoints from five main characters reveal each one’s connection to the Biafran rebels during the 1960s Nigerian Civil War and resulting conflicts and consequences.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Wartime violence and death, including that of civilians by massacre and starvation; rape; adultery; forced military service

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Author

• Bio: Born in 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria; lost family members and possessions during the Nigerian Civil War; attended the University of Nigeria before arriving in the US to study at Drexel University in Philadelphia and the Eastern Connecticut State University; later attended Johns Hopkins University for creative writing; awarded 16 honorary degrees from prestigious colleges and universities and earned the Macarthur Fellowship “Genius grant” honor (2008); inspired and influenced by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe; has given several TEDx talks on cultural understating, feminism, and the influence of background and history on individuals
• Other Works: Purple Hibiscus (2003); Americanah (2013); We Should All Be Feminists (2014)
• Awards: O. Henry Prize (2003); Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (2004); Commonwealth Writer’s Prize (2005); Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction (2007); Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007); “Best of the Best” Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (2015)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• The Horrors of War
• Sectarian Identity Crises
• Betrayal

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the social, cultural, and historical contexts regarding the Igbo culture and the Nigerian Civil War.
• Study paired texts and other resources to make connections via the text’s theme of Sectarian Identity Crises.
• Analyze and evaluate plot and character details to draw conclusions in a diary entry or a poem that can be shared with the class.
• Examine plot and character details, as well as the author’s use of literary devices, to draw conclusions regarding the book’s narrative style and how the themes of The Horrors of War, Sectarian Identity Crises, and Betrayal are conveyed in the novel.