Father Tyrant

There is significance in the fact that our narrator is Kambili, a 15-year old child. The first reason that seems to stand out to me is that fact that it echoes the ideas of colonialism and imperialism that we've been talking about in class. The fact that our narrator is a young girl, living in her house with her parents who run her life ( as most children should), relates very much to the presence of the white man, almost as a parent, in Africa throughout the book. This relationship with the other characters in the book just highlights the ongoing situation in the background, obviously done on purpose.

It's interesting to note how Kambili will sometimes justify her father's actions or almost agree with him, even if they have negative conotations for her. On pages 41 to 42 we see this. Kambili's father tells her that she had the second highest grades in the class because she "chose to" and didn't put in enough work. This is suppossed to make Kambili feel bad. A normal parent would be happy with his daughter's stellar performance, but Kambili's father has to nit-pick. The fact that Kambili feels bad, or even worse, guilty, shows her relation with her tyranic father. It's so weird, but happens so often, that people will see their tyrant as a good thing and a positive person, because they simply don't know any better. This relationship exists to compare and contrast with Africa's situation, which we will probably learn more about during the following week.