Isolation

The author writes the short story from Okenwa's first person point of view in order to access the complex emotional aspects of his childhood isolation. In the narrative present, Okenwa has learned how to detach from his parents during visits to their "small overfurnishied flat" (1). During these afternoons with his mother and father, Okenwa becomes "submerged in the foggy lull of [their] storytelling" (2). He neither expects their tales to be realistic, nor to have any relevance to, or impact on his life. Therefore, when his mother mentions Raphael's name in relation to a story about a recent onslaught of "armed robberies all over the east," Okenwa is jarred into "the sharp awakening of memory" (2). His first person perspective allows the narrative to veer suddenly into the annals of his past, and to carry the reader along with him. Indeed, only the first two pages are set...