30 pages • 1 hour read
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieCell One
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Cell One
Despite being the titular setting of the story, Cell One remains a largely enigmatic space throughout; Nnamabia only ever reveals what happens outside of the cell while alluding to the horrors that occur within. As such, Cell One exists primarily in the imagination of the narrator rather than in the text itself. The narrator’s ominous observation after Nnamabia’s release—“Nnamabia did not say what happened to him in Cell One, or what happened at the new site” (Paragraph 68)—reinforces the horrific mystery surrounding Cell One. As such, Cell One symbolizes the terror associated with systemic violence throughout the story, which is intangible but ever-present.
In the beginning stages of “Cell One,” Nnamabia seems immune to this terror, either perpetrating it himself or laughing at its societal effects. During the family’s first visit to the prison, he “smiled, his face more beautiful than ever… and said that he had slipped money into his anus shortly after the arrest” (Paragraph 19). Though this devil-may-care attitude gradually wears away as Nnamabia becomes more aware of the injustices surrounding him in prison, it is only after he decides to stand up for the old man and is transferred to Cell One that he makes a full transformation. By adopting an empathetic attitude, Nnamabia can both understand the terrors of the violent system and survive them. Adichie thus presents empathy as an act of unprecedented bravery in a setting where characters comfortably partake in The Harms of Privilege-Fueled Apathy.
The Volvo
The Volvo used by the family to drive to Enugu for their daily visits to the prison symbolizes the parents’ indulgent treatment of Nnamabia in the narrator’s eyes. She aims her frustrations with the family dynamic at the car, hurling a rock at it on the day she does not want to visit Nnamabia. When the family skips their trip that day, the narrator recalls, “[i]t surprised me, this little victory” (Paragraph 28). Adichie suggests, therefore, that the narrator’s attack against the car is also an attack against her parent’s devotion to caring for Nnamabia. The next day, however, the family drives to Enugu with a cracked windshield, and it is evident that this effort was ultimately futile.
However, while it represents a parental injustice in the mind of the narrator, the Volvo’s reputation as a luxury car also signifies the family’s socioeconomic privilege. In this sense, the narrator’s rebellion is an act of privileged violence and self-destruction, just as shortsighted as Nnamabia’s robbery and involvement with the cults on campus. This double-meaning is a key example of irony in the story that is not apparent to the characters themselves.
Mother’s Gold
When Nnamabia steals his mother’s gold in the first episode of the story, the gold symbolizes her general attitude toward conflict and injustice. His mother’s horrified initial response to the robbery is undermined by her eventual silent remedying of the loss. The narrator remembers that:
[e]ven though my mother’s sisters sent her their gold earrings, even though she bought a new gold chain from Mrs. Mozie […] we never talked about what happened to her jewelry (Paragraph 9).
This handling of the gold mirrors her treatment of the story’s primary conflict (i.e., Nnamabia’s imprisonment), namely a silent determination to methodically fix the problem at hand. Their mother’s unyielding campaign to rebuild her gold collection by paying Ms. Mozie every week is later echoed in her consistent visits to Nnamabia in prison and her determination to hold police accountable for their treatment of him. While the narrator perceives her behavior as passive and cowardly, the story suggests that the mother is exercising a subtler form of power than the narrator can understand.
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By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
