Apollo

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2015

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Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

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Literary Devices

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Literary Devices

Point of View

“Apollo” is told from a first-person point of view, and the narrator is also a character in the story—the protagonist, Okenwa. In first-person point of view, the reader has access only to the knowledge and perceptions of the viewpoint character; all the events of the story are filtered through Okenwa. Because of this, it’s important to remember that everything Okenwa says is colored by his personal biases, misunderstandings, and flawed perceptions. Though Okenwa is not a blatantly unreliable narrator, the story leaves open the possibility that some of his perceptions are skewed or prejudiced. In particular, he fails to realize that his romantic feelings for Raphael are not reciprocated. Because he feels such an intense connection to Raphael, readers are led to believe that Raphael feels it as well, especially during the scenes in Raphael’s room when Okenwa is administering his eye drops. The story’s conclusion reveals that readers, like Okenwa, have misread Raphael’s feelings and that Okenwa’s crush is not reciprocated. The story’s point of view thus contributes to its exploration of Perception, Transformation, and Loss of Innocence.

Flashback

“Apollo” begins in the present day with the adult Okenwa taking care of his elderly retired parents. However, most of the story takes place during Okenwa’s childhood in the form of an extended flashback. Flashback is a classic literary device used to reveal events that occurred prior to the narrative present; it often serves to recontextualize present events. This is the case in “Apollo,” where the gradual unveiling of information via flashback heightens the emotional impact of key plot points. Readers see Okenwa as an adult and The Different Forms of Guilt he carries with him, which only fully make sense after learning what he did to Raphael as a child. Readers see his parents in their old age, a sharp contrast to their past selves. Most importantly, readers learn that Raphael has become a thief as an adult, but the explanation for this turn of events only emerges with Okenwa’s lie at the end of the flashback. By first depicting the consequences of Okenwa’s actions, Adichie gives her ending more of an emotional punch, ensuring that readers leave the story with the image of Okenwa’s betrayal.

Foreshadowing

Adichie uses foreshadowing throughout “Apollo” to hint at future narrative events. The opening paragraphs reveal that Okenwa has never married or had children and has a tendency to become “tense” when his parents question him about this. While this by itself does not necessarily indicate that he is gay, the later reveal of his romantic attraction to Raphael makes this detail more significant.

Another example of foreshadowing occurs near the beginning of the flashback, when Adichie describes the experiences and fates of various former houseboys. These houseboys live in terror of Okenwa’s mother—or “Madam,” as they call her. One boy, Hyginus, was dismissed for allegedly insulting her, while the boy before him, John, fled the house in fear after accidentally breaking a dish. The houseboys treat Okenwa with impatient nervousness, afraid that his behavior will somehow get them in trouble with “Madam.” This serves as setup for Okenwa’s betrayal of Raphael, when he takes advantage of his mother’s well-known harshness to get Raphael fired.

The story’s most significant example of foreshadowing comes with Raphael’s introduction, when Okenwa learns that Raphael has become the ringleader of a gang of thieves. This indicates that something in Raphael’s life went wrong at some point, foreshadowing his firing.

Setting

Setting—when and where a story takes place—plays an important role in “Apollo.” Other than the opening paragraphs, which take place in Okenwa’s parents’ “small overfurnished flat” (1), the entirety of the story unfolds in Okenwa’s childhood home. However, different places in the house convey specific moods or meanings.

Okenwa’s bedroom is a place where he never feels comfortable. It is cluttered with books, but not books that he selected. They are his parents’ books, which were placed in his room because “they did not fit in the study and corridor” (14). Books symbolize the expectations Okenwa feels his parents have for him as well as the pressure to conform to a heteronormative standard; the books in his room are a constant reminder of Okenwa’s failure to live up to both. He can’t feel at home in his bedroom, just as he can’t feel at home in his own skin. Later when he comes down with Apollo, his room becomes a kind of prison, separating him from Raphael and creating the cracks that eventually end their relationship.

The two other most significant settings are the backyard and Raphael’s bedroom—both places associated with Raphael and which therefore represent freedom and escape from the stifling, book-filled rooms of the rest of the house. The backyard is where Raphael and Okenwa go to practice kung fu, free from the scrutiny of Okenwa’s parents: “My parents did not notice how close Raphael and I had become. All they saw was that I now happened to play outside, and Raphael was, of course, part of the landscape of outside: weeding the garden, washing pots at the water tank” (22). It is in the setting of the backyard, a natural place full of growing plants, that Okenwa’s romantic feelings for Raphael first blossom.

Raphael’s room, in contrast to Okenwa’s room, is so free from clutter that Okenwa is “struck by how bare it was” (44). The bareness of Raphael’s room indicates his poverty compared to Okenwa’s family, developing the theme of Class Differences and Cross-Class Relationships, but it also represents freedom from the pressures of Okenwa’s parents and society as a whole. The room represents privacy and intimacy, and when Okenwa and Raphael are there, they speak in a hushed manner, almost like they are in a sacred place. Okenwa entering Raphael’s room for the first time signifies a new level of closeness in their relationship, and it is during these scenes that they are most removed from the rest of the world.