37 pages • 1 hour read
Akwaeke EmeziThe Death of Vivek Oji
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
An omniscient narrator still details the past:
On the day that Chika brings Vivek back home from university, there are political protests happening in the streets due to the upcoming elections. Chika gleans from one of the protestors that Abacha, a military general who served as the head of state of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998, is dead. Chika murmurs, “Thank God,” then, “It’s a new day for Nigeria” to Vivek (112).
As a result of a seven o’clock citywide curfew, Vivek can no longer take his nightly walks, and he insists on spending the night outside in a plumeria tree instead. In the morning, he is covered in mosquito bites and chicken feces.
Kavita invites one of the other mothers, Rhatha, over with her two daughters Somto and Olunne, whom Vivek knew as a child. Rhatha pries about how Vivek is doing. Kavita brushes off Rhatha’s questions, saying that Vivek is just sensitive and needs a break from school. When the sisters return from Vivek’s room where they visited him, Kavita expects them to report back about Vivek’s health—however, they say nothing. Kavita realizes that “somewhere within the walls of Vivek’s room, allegiances had shifted, unseen pacts had been made, and Somto and Olunne had stepped out carrying Vivek’s secrets in the elastic of their ponytails” (117).
Vivek begins spending more and more time with Somto and Olunne and also with Juju, Maja’s daughter. When Kavita calls Maja to inquire about Vivek’s whereabouts, Maja confirms that Vivek is at her house, and she off-handedly comments that she sometimes forgets that Vivek isn’t one of the girls. Annoyed, Kavita hangs up, convinced that the comment arose from Maja’s jealousy over having no son.
Across town, Chika is having a loveless affair with Eloise, one of the other mothers. He doesn’t much like her. He justifies the affair with what he perceives as Kavita’s preoccupation and obsession with Vivek. One night, while walking home from spending time with the girls, Vivek gets caught in the crosshairs of a riot. He is rescued and taken home by Tobechukwu, a boy from his childhood whom Vivek used to fight with. Vivek does not understand why Tobechukwu saved him.
Chapter 12 Summary
Vivek narrates, remembering Somto and Olunne’s visit to his room. He admits that on that day, lying in bed in the middle of the afternoon, he contemplated ending things. Then the sisters barged into his room:
Olunne touches Vivek’s hair and calls him pretty. The three become fast friends again, there “in a blocked-off room filled with yellowing light” (135). Vivek, narrating, regrets not thanking the girls more for bringing him out of loneliness when he was alive. The narration shifts back to Vivek’s memories with Tobechukwu:
Vivek again wonders why Tobechukwu saved him the night of the protest. Tobechukwu later makes an appearance at the “boys’ quarters” where Vivek is smoking outside, and the two have a short-lived sexual encounter. The encounter reminds Vivek of the young men at his boarding school, except Tobechukwu isn’t threatening; the men at school coerced Vivek into giving them “pleasure,” believing themselves entitled to it, believing the abuse didn’t reflect on their own sexuality. In contrast, Tobechukwu seems indifferent. Midway through oral sex, Tobechukwu removes himself from Vivek’s mouth, thanks him, and walks away.
Now narrating, Vivek remembers the urge to laugh because the interaction was so strange, and “[e]verything had stopped making sense a long time ago” (135).
Chapter 13 Summary
Osita narrates a memory: Under the pretense of checking up on Vivek, Ostia finds him at Juju’s house—but really, Osita wants to confide in Vivek about his experience kissing another man at a university party, how he pretended not to remember the next day when the young man eagerly approached him about it, and the hurt look on his face with Osita denied the kiss. Osita confides in Vivek and says Vivek is the only person he can tell. Vivek asks Osita why he couldn’t have just kept it a secret: “Isn’t that what everyone does?” Vivek asks (146). Vivek then angrily asks Osita why he thinks he can turn to Vivek for comfort when Osita used to treat Vivek so poorly. Osita realizes his error as Vivek angrily stares him down. “I had kicked at him,” Osita remembers, “only to come crawling back, asking him to see me” (147).
Osita kisses Vivek hard, admitting that he’s wanted to for years. Vivek hits Osita, trying to get away, asking him what he is doing. Osita feels he can’t let Vivek go. Vivek eventually kisses Osita back. Vivek performs oral sex on Osita, which Osita has never done before with a man. Afterwards, Osita sobs in Vivek’s arms until they fall asleep.
Chapter 14 Summary
Vivek narrates his response to his first sexual encounter with Osita. He remembers that it felt like his first time being penetrated, even though it wasn’t. He recalls the heinous things that people called men who allowed other men to penetrate them, including the implication that they were ugly or that they were women. Vivek maintains that if the pleasure of penetration supposedly nullified his manhood, then he was fine with it: “I was never [a man] to begin with, anyway” (154).
Chapter 15 Summary
An omniscient narrator relays more of the past:
While out and about trying to find a present for her girlfriend, Elizabeth, Juju spots her father with his second family. Juju feels nervous about dating a girl as it is her first time, but this nervousness is interrupted by her pain when she spies her father holding the hand of a small child who is unmistakably his son. She now understands her parents’ incessant fighting and why her father will not allow her mother to travel outside of the country for dental work. Juju recently saw her mother Maja cry in pain as she pulled an infected tooth from her own mouth.
At Juju’s house, the day after Osita and Vivek’s sexual encounter, Juju kissed Vivek. Neither has mentioned it since. On the day that Juju discovers her father’s secret, Vivek visits her. Juju and Vivek became best friends over the course of being reunited through Somto and Olunne. Juju confesses feeling like a bad girlfriend to Elizabeth and that she does not tell Elizabeth everything, including that Vivek and Osita are lovers; Vivek tells Juju that she should trust Elizabeth if she wants her as a girlfriend. Juju confides in Vivek about seeing her father with her half-brother, and Vivek holds her for hours while she cries.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
Chapter 11 introduces the motif of political unrest and how this rising violence foreshadows Vivek’s imminent death. Chapter 12 signifies a turning point for Vivek in which he receives relief from his loneliness through his friendship with Somto, Olunne, and later Juju. This chapter marks the beginning of Vivek’s journey to embrace his true self.
Chapter 12 also indicates the existence of a covert sexual culture in the village, as depicted through Tobechukwu’s interest in Vivek and their brief sexual interaction. This encounter with Tobechukwu reminds Vivek of the young men at his military school who felt entitled to sex with him, believing their masculinity (as exclusively endowed by heterosexuality) is untouchable. These latter interactions indicate the pathological mental distortions than can result from repressed sexuality and internalized anti-gay bias—distortions featuring hypocrisy, in the case of the young men at boarding school. Tobechukwu, too, is conflicted in a way he never explains to Vivek. Chapters 13, 14, and 15 develop and complicate Vivek’s sexuality. In Chapter 13, Osita narrates his first sexual encounter with Vivek and the emotional release he experiences being held in Vivek’s arms after sex, fully realizing his desire for other men. In Chapter 14, Vivek maintains that though it was not his first time being sexually penetrated, the experience with Osita made it feel like his first time. He then details society’s derogatory attitudes toward men who allow penetration—attitudes going so far as to wholly deny their manhood. In the face of this slander, Vivek denounces masculinity, maintaining, “I was never [a man] to begin with, anyway” (154).
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