Immigrants In Open City

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Open City is a novel that details the life of a Nigerian doctor who feels that he is detached from his homeland. It provides an epitome of how immigrants feel when they are not at home. Written by Teju Cole, who is of Nigerian descent but was actually born in the United States. The novel covers a broad spectrum of issues that immigrants face when not home. Julius, who is the story protagonist faces all these problems as he practices his residency in New York. Cole wrote this novel to emphasize on the daily life of an immigrant and how some immigrants are looked upon to play a certain stereotype due to the background. Cole’s vivid imagery and detailed writing allow the reader to actually understand how it felt to be an immigrant in the street of New York. …show more content…

Throughout the book, Julius feels lost. He keeps on having flashbacks of his time back home, Nigeria. His detachment to a foreign country makes him feel very distant to the things that were very meaningful to him. For instance, Julius relates back to his first love back at home when his current girlfriend had a slight limp coming off the bus. This memory of Julius shows how even the little things keep of reminding of his time at home. Most of the time, many immigrants fall into this pool. Though they move to foreign countries for many different reasons, nothing will ever compare to their homeland where they were born and raised. This specific part of the book relates to Okuda’s paper which was an excerpt we read back in class. In Okuda’s paper, musicians believed that moving to London to make music would be the same back home, but they were actually disappointed and felt no

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