Dream Count

Kadi’s storyline is peppered with harrowing experiences. Analyze how Kadi overcomes violence, loss, and hardship via her own will. Cite specific examples from the text and consider the narrative mood surrounding each of Kadi’s challenges. What does Kadi’s character arc reveal about The Pursuit of Lasting Happiness?

Analyze the role of point of view throughout the novel. Why are some chapters are written from the first-person point of view while others are written from the third person. How do these narrative vantage points relate to each of the main characters’ arcs and journeys?

Explore the narrative and thematic significance of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown setting. How does this temporal setting relate to the novel’s central conflicts and themes? How would the novel differ if set in an alternate era?

All four of the main characters feel at odds with their families’ and culture’s expectations for their lives. Craft an analytical essay that explores the repercussions and possibilities the characters face because of their choices. What does it mean for Chia, Zikora, Kadi, and Omelogor to resist the lives prescribed for them? Does resistance take on different meanings for each of them? Does it come with different costs? Why?

Craft an argument that supports or refutes the claim that Chia is a dynamic character. If she does change, what experiences contribute to her evolution? If she doesn’t change, why do her experiences fail to transform her?

Analyze the novel’s overarching structure. What are the effects of Adichie’s choice to organize Dream Count into separate storylines? How do Chia’s, Zikora’s, Kadi’s, and Omelogor’s accounts relate to each other; and what is the significance of these intersections? How would the narrative explorations change if the novel followed a more conventional plot line?

The novel is rife with references to loss and grief. Explore how each major character’s encounters with loss relate to their personal development journeys. How does each character respond to loss differently? Taken together, what do they reveal about how best to deal with grief?

Each of the protagonists’ stories contains allusions to and images of motherhood. Explore the role of maternal relationships in the protagonists’ character arcs. Consider also atypical forms of mothering that appear throughout the novel (such as Kadi and Chia’s relationship and Omelogor and Atasi’s relationship).