Where is your Humanity?

“Papa lands the machete on Maman’s head. Her voice chokes and she falls off the bed and onto her back on the wooden floor. It’s like a dream. The knife tumbles out of Papa’s hand. His eyes are closed, his face calm, though he’s shaking.” (Akpan, Pg 24)

When I was reading My Parents’ Bedroom, those sentences were the most chilling. I had to read over it to make sure I was reading it correctly. The language that’s used in these sentences help emphasize how abrupt and devastating this ordeal was. I think it was also hard for me to wrap my mind around what happened because I obviously didn’t expect that to happen, husbands don’t kill their wives, especially when you love them. Based on what Monique said, her parents love and support each other, so how could her father kill her mother? It’s hard to wrap my mind around that.


I think what’s also very harrowing is that it happened so quickly. I honestly was expecting Monique to stop her dad or her dad to say something to his wife that he loved her before he did the deed because of the fact that he was hesitating at first. But the way Monique describes makes it seem like it was all very robotic. There wasn’t necessarily any emotion while her dad was doing it, which I guess makes sense because he could’ve acted that way so it would be less painful for his wife in the sense where she wouldn’t be waiting or anticipating it, which would obviously be more painful for her.

These sentences in particular are a part of a larger theme in this story: family means nothing when you’re faced with cultural and societal pressures. Despite the fact that Monique’s parents loved each other, and as a family were close they couldn’t protect or save each other because of the fact that everyone else believed that having a pure bloodline was more important than keeping families together. This idea of having a pure bloodline brainwashed their society and lengths that they went to to uphold this idea were absolutely horrific--Monique’s uncle killed his pregnant wife and Monique’s dad killed his wife. Despite the fact that they loved them, each person killed their significant other because people forced them because they were doing it for the greater good. It is just absolutely chilling to see how people are able to lose their humanity and justify actions like these.

Where did their humanity go? How does one just completely forget about their morals and completely go rogue? It’s just a very interesting thing because as humans we are taught what is right and what is wrong and we carry those ideas throughout our entire life. But in horrific events like war or genocide, people are able to find a way to justify killing, despite the fact that we all know that murder is a terrible thing. It just goes to show that culture and society can have a powerful influence on a person--it can completely change their character. Monique’s uncle went from someone who adored his wife and was affectionate with her public to killing her because of societal pressure. That’s terrifying because it makes you wonder: When faced in a difficult situation, how far will people go to protect themselves?