One of the biggest topics of interest to me while reading Americanah is the comparison of the American experience of an immigrant through Ifemelu's eyes, and a British immigrant through Obinze's eyes. This comparison drove a large majority of the book, and drove home many key points for the author in her writing. It is very interesting to explore the way that both Obinze and Ifemelu felt and the thing they experienced as they made their journey into their separate new "home countries."
The difference between the US and the UK in how they treat and handle race is discussed on page 240. Obinze states, "A white boy and a black girl who grow up in the same working-class town in this country can get together and race will be secondary, but in America, even if the white boy and black girl grow up in the same neighborhood, race would be primary." When a woman asserts to Ifemelu that race isn't a problem in her interracial relationship, Ifemelu can't help but set her straight and explains that, "the only reason you say that race was not an issue ie because you wish it was not" (Adiche, 359). Despite the ever-present acknowledgment of race in both the UK and the US, Adiche describes the main difference between the two is that in the United States race has been and always will be the number one problem.
There are many subtle similarities in the experiences that Obinze and Ifemelu have throughout their immigration. These include their experiences working what they would describe as demeaning jobs: Obinze with washing toilets and Ifemelu with her encounter with the tennis coach. It seems that in both situations, the characters had to put aside both their morals and their pride to survive in their new homes. This is not an uncommon experience for immigrants, and is a sad reality that many who move to a different country for a so called "better life" have to endure. Ifemelu describes her emotions going into her encouter by saying she felt "defeated" (Adiche, 189). This feeling of defeat, or being beaten by the country they held such high hopes for is present in both Ifemelu and Obinze at different points in their experience,
While Ifemelu eventually secures a job, and finds a stable life in the United States, Obinze ends his immigration journey with being deported back to Nigeria. This is a stark difference between the two, and shows that despite very similar experiences throughout their immigration and living in new places, one small detail or event can completely derail an immigrants life and send them back to their home country. They both however, do eventually find their way back, as Ifemelu decides despite her "successful" immigration to the US, she is unfulfilled and moves back. This shared theme of returning home, whether by choice or by force serves to bookend the immigration experience in Americanah, and show that sometimes returning home is where people feel more content.
I think that the parallels drawn by Adichi pertaining to the different experiences Obinze and Ifemelu have are not only important in understanding the building of the characters in this novel, but the theme of immigrant struggle on the world scale. The value in this posts comes from the description of the varying experience, from their similarities in the degrading tasks both Ifemelu and Obinze complete to the difference in their "success" in building a new life in their respective countries. In, this way, I feel Adichi wanted to convey how different immigration is for each individual who braves the journey from their home to a foreign land, but a sense of common ground in the fact that it is almost always a very difficult journey to make from country to country, as well as from immigrant to citizen.
ReplyDeleteAn important idea made in this post that I wanted to expand upon is the varying "success" experienced by Obinze and Ifemelu. In the novel, we can see that Ifemelu is much more successful, getting an education and a fellowship at Princeton, and most importantly a green card. Obinze, on the other hand, is left being deported back to Nigeria right before he is about to complete a marriage to obtain his citizenship. However, while their success seems varied, I would argue that both of these experiences are overwhelmingly unsuccessful. This is because, while she may have been able to obtain an education and job in America, Ifemelu ends up clearly unhappy, feeling disconnected physically and emotionally from Nigeria enough to leave her success behind. I feel that this is Adichi's way to explain that even though there are "successful" immigrants, this success may never be complete, and always comes with a sense of longing for home.