My Sister, the Serial Killer

One hallmark of Nigerian Noir is its focus on moral ambiguity. Where does My Sister, the Serial Killer take a clear moral stand, and where does it allow for the possibility of moral ambiguity?

• How do characterization, plot detail, and tone convey moral judgment—or a lack thereof?
• Is there a difference between Korede’s moral judgment and the novel’s moral judgment?
• How does the novel’s cultural context relate to its morally ambiguous stance on certain issues and its moral clarity on other issues?
• Where do you suspect you are seeing the influence of the author’s personal moral beliefs rather than the influences of culture and genre?

Teaching Suggestion: Because this prompt involves a discussion of a culture of which many students are not a part of, if you are asking students to discuss the prompt aloud, you may wish to preface the discussion with some guidelines about respectful discussion of Nigerian culture. The first of the bulleted points is intended as an evidence-gathering exercise so that students have a solid textual foundation for their conclusions as they discuss the next three bulleted points and come to an overall position about the novel’s degree of moral ambiguity. Even if you are asking students to discuss the prompt rather than write a response, you may wish to have them make some notes related to this first point, so that they are able to present strong evidence for their reasoning.

Differentiation Suggestion: English learners and students with dyslexia may have difficulty reviewing large portions of the text in order to gather evidence for the first bullet point. These students may be more successful if allowed to work with a partner or in a small group. Critical reasoning and abstract thought become progressively more important with each subsequent bullet point. Students who find abstractions challenging may find it unreasonably difficult to craft a response because the final two points are demanding; if your students are responding in writing, you might consider excusing these particular students from responding to the final two points.