Essay On Americah By Chimamanda Adichie

Ryan Kalaigian
Hamilton
English 15 Sect 066
21 October 2014
In Americanah, Chimamanda Adichie tells a story of Ifemelu, a Nigerian native, who is split apart from her lover Obinze to become educated in the United States. Obinze jumps into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Ifemelu, on the other hand, faces many challenges and choices, and overcomes obstacles such as race and relationships. Adichie does an excellent job of pointing out and emphasizing the theme of separation in these obstacles through Ifemelu in Americanah.
Ifemelu’s journey in America is informed by experiences of race that won’t seem new to black Americans, though they’re new to her. As an African, and more specifically, as a Nigerian Igbo, she’s not “black” until she comes to America. This is shown through a number of instances in the novel, starting with

On one occasion, Ifemelu, wanting to get her eyebrows waxed, is informed by an “Asian woman behind the counter” that “we don’t do curly” (Adichie ). Even though she is being looked at as an outsider to the woman, Ifemelu does not react negatively. Ifemelu experiences separation that upsets her quite frequently, and usually refrains from expressing her feelings to others. She notices that blacks in general are unable to talk with whites about these issues because they don’t want whites to take offense. Her experiences of separation work not only against her sense of self, but against her sense of community. When her black American boyfriend, Blaine, organizes a protest against racism in front of a library, she instead attends a party, already executing her escape from a racial struggle of which she realizes she wants no part (SOURCE ). Her separation from the protest is an interesting way for Adichie to show just how fed up Ifemelu is with the segregation. I liked how in this case, separation proved a point for Ifemelu: that segregation will always