In "Cell One," The unnamed father of Nnamabia and the Cell One narrator, Father is a professor at Nsukka campus. Though he knows that his son is a thief and involved in gang activity, Father doesn't ever punish Nnamabia with more than writing reports about his wrongdoings. He also doesn't call out other professors when their sons steal. When Nnamabia is jailed, Father seems pleased that Nnamabia is shaken and appears to be learning a lesson.
Father Quotes in The Thing Around Your Neck
The The Thing Around Your Neck quotes below are all either spoken by Father or refer to Father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Anchor Books edition of The Thing Around Your Neck published in 2009.
Cell One
Quotes
"You cannot raise your children well, all of you people who feel important because you work in the university. When your children misbehave, you think they should not be punished. You are lucky, madam, very lucky that they released him."
Related Characters:
Nnamabia, Cell One Narrator, Mother, Father
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Father Character Timeline in The Thing Around Your Neck
The timeline below shows where the character Father appears in The Thing Around Your Neck. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Cell One
...known exactly where the jewelry was. She knew that Nnamabia had done it, and their father knew it too. When their father confronted Nnamabia, he acted dramatically wounded about the accusation...
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...he hadn't gotten a good price for the jewelry, making the Cell One narrator angry. Father asked Nnamabia to write a report about what he'd done, since Nnamabia was 17 and...
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...their guns were rusty, and Nnamabia said that the cult boys had modern guns. Mother, Father, and the narrator all wonder if Nnamabia is in a cult, but he denies it.
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...doesn't come home that night, and in the morning, a security man tells Mother and Father that Nnamabia has been arrested. They drive to the police station in town, where an...
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...buy the cell chief's favor. Mother looks worried. In the car on the way home, Father says that Nnamabia is shaken, though the narrator can't see it.
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...says that Nnamabia's face is covered in infected bumps. Nnamabia tells the narrator, Mother, and Father that earlier in the day, he had to defecate in a plastic bag because the...
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For Nnamabia's first week in prison, Mother, Father, and the Cell One narrator visit daily in Father's Volvo. The narrator notices that her...
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The Cell One narrator, Mother, and Father visit the next day. Nnamabia looks sober and explains that an old man had joined...
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...to give the old man food, but he can't take food back into his cell. Father goes to a prison guard and asks if they'd let the old man out so...
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...days later, a cult boy attacks another boy with an axe on campus. Mother and Father spend the day at the school superintendent's office, and at the end of the day,...
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Mother and Father give the policeman on duty the release note. The policeman says that there are complications....
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...to not expect consequences, and that she's lucky that Nnamabia is being released at all. Father speeds all the way home and doesn't stop at any of the police checkpoints.
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When Mother, Father, the Cell One narrator, and Nnamabia arrive home, Nnamabia explains what happened. He says the...
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