Rebecca Character Analysis

Rebecca is Big Madam and Big Daddy’s former housemaid who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Adunni is her replacement. Throughout the novel, characters avoid talking about Rebecca; Big Madam, in particular, is desperate to change the subject whenever Rebecca comes up in conversation. Adunni grows curious about Rebecca, especially after she finds Rebecca’s waist beads abandoned in her old room, which is now Adunni’s. So, Adunni makes it her mission to uncover the mystery of Rebecca’s disappearance. Eventually, through a note that Rebecca wrote that Abu found hidden in Big Daddy’s car after she disappeared, Adunni learns that Rebecca had a sexual relationship with Big Daddy, eventually becoming pregnant with his baby. Big Daddy told Rebecca that he would marry her, but then he tricked her into drinking something that would induce a miscarriage. At the end of the novel, Big Madam tells Adunni that she took Rebecca to a hospital to stop the bleeding and, afterward, gave her money to leave the house and never return. At the end of the novel, before Adunni leaves Big Madam’s house for the last time, she writes “Adunni & Rebecca” on the wall—a symbolic gesture that documents Rebecca’s life and place in history and validates her as a person.