Half of a Yellow Sun

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Changing Perspectives”

In this activity, students will choose a character to analyze by examining their actions and/or attitudes during a positive experience and comparing them to their actions and/or attitudes in response to witnessing violence and hunger. Students will then further analyze the character by conveying their perspective in a diary entry that details the impact of these negative experiences.

Throughout the novel, the characters in Half of a Yellow Sun witness The Horrors of War. Since the story is told through multiple characters’ perspectives, the reader has the benefit of observing and understanding how and why each character responds to these horrors differently. How do the violent events in the plot impact the characters, potentially changing them forever?

• Choose a character to analyze.
• Find a scene and passage in the novel that describes a positive memory or a happy time for your character. Pick at least three words or phrases from the passage that reveal the tone of the scene and feelings of the character.
• Find a second passage in the novel that describes a scene of violence, death, or famine that your character witnesses.