In "Cell One" I found it interesting that, while his family was very aware of the many questionable actions of Nnamabia, it was his younger sister who was scolded or just simply ignored. I first really realized how much the mother especially held Nnamabia on a pedestal when Adichie talks about the person in the supermarket asking why she wasted her fair skin on a boy and left the girl so dark. The rest of that paragraph goes on to explain how Nnamabia was forgiven, or never punished in the first place, for his many misdemeanors. I feel like the author is only further emphasizing the "good" connotation that goes along with white skin.
Both the parents found a way to rationalize all of Namibia's actions, like when he stole the test answers and sold them, the parents said he needed more spending money instead of showing him it was wrong to steal the answers for profit. This leaves me to believe that jail was a much needed experience because it made Nnamabia realized that people are not invincible and that includes him. After seeing the man getting beaten and taken advantage of, I think it humbled him.
There is a pattern of what I suppose is "purposeful ignorance" because the entire town seems to be aware of the thieves and the cults, and yet they simply hide in their houses and pretend like it isn't their neighbors that are killing people and breaking into their houses. They even say that they know who the thieves are, but if they know then why do they let them get away with it? Is it just because they are always the attractive, popular boys? The narrator even admits having a crush on the boy who broke into her house. The mothers passive attitude and the narrators invisibility only acts to strengthen the male dominated attitude of "Cell One."
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