This story in The New Yorker is about a Nigerian man trying to get through traffic. He is driving a red Volkswagen Beetle and the first major scene is when it breaks down. His car is stopped and a Lagos man near the road offers to help. The narrator, whose name I never quite caught, is terrified by this man and seems to want him to leave as quickly as possible. The Lagos man does not leave however, and invites himself along for the ride back to where the narrator is staying. Once they get the car started the Lagos man does not stop talking. He is constantly saying something about Nigeria or the people or anything he can think of. The narrator is slightly afraid of this but is also grateful that someone helped him get his car started. At some point the narrator realizes that he and the Lagos man come from apposing tribes and this scares him even more. He does not want to offend him or let him know where he comes from. As they drive he realizes that he has run over something that is kind of large but soft. After a few moments the Lagos man confirms, “That was a corpse, man” (Akpan 5). This idea of running over a corpse resonates with the narrator and he often refers back to it on his journey. At first he is scared and never wants to be that corpse in the road, but as he continues and the environment becomes less stable he starts saying that he wants to be that corpse. He says, “Let him kill me, auction off or sacrifice my essential organs, and crush my corpse under cars, I think” (Akpan 14). I thought that this reference back to the corpse was very interesting and it really showed how as time went on he gave up trying.
Once the two get closer into town the Beetle breaks down again. The entire car ride the narrator had needed to use a bathroom quite badly and takes this opportunity to go out and pee by the train tracks. The O.P.C catch him and accuse him of defecating, which he did not. It takes him bribing these men to get out of the charges and be left alone. All along this drive he has had to bribe people to continue on his way without trouble. The environment in this part of the world seems to be very different than any that we have really studied so far. At the end of the story his car breaks down again, but they manage to get it to a fuel station. Three little children come running up and start begging for them to let their father fix the Beetle. They make their case by saying, “We need to eat tonight!” and “God shall elect you the new President of out country!” (Akpan 16). Eventually the narrator does let this man fix his car and after the job is finished he is finally able to get the Lagosian to leave him.
Definitions:
Defunct – no longer in effect or use; not operating or funcitoning
Molue – a bus of some sort
