In Ghosts the Father reminisces about his daughter’s new life in America and the grandson he will never know. He does not want to live in America with her, because “I will be forced to live a life cushioned by so much convenience that it is sterile” (67) It is a life “littered with what we call opportunities”.
This sense of “sterility” is reinforced by a sense of loss — of traditional customs, culture and lifestyles. That life lacks passion, vibrancy and intensity is often highlighted in comparisons between America and Nigeria. America as sterile place: loss In The Shivering, Adichie also draws parallels between the passion, the fervour and the vibrancy of catholic sermons in Nigeria as compared with those in America. Father Patrick sprinkles water from a big saltshaker (166). The narrator reflects upon how much more “subdued Catholic masses were in America” (166). In Nigeria, the priest would have been “splashing and swirling holy water” and the “people would have been drenched”.
In Arrangers of Marriage: Chinaza, who is pressured into a “perfect” arranged marriage, discovers first-hand just how sterile life is in America. Her husband encourages her to adopt American customs and to forget her Nigerian habits.
Food becomes a symbol of assimilation: the husband …show more content…
She feels lonely, isolated displaced and alienated . At night “something would wrap around your neck, something that very nearly choked you before you fell asleep” (119). She not only suffers from a lack of control but from the burden of expectations placed upon her by Nigerians at home. Significantly, Adichie uses sentence constructions that refer to Akunna impersonally as “You” and repeat consistently the fact that “you wanted to write because you had stories to tell” but because of her own desperate circumstances “you write to nobody”
This sense of “sterility” is reinforced by a sense of loss — of traditional customs, culture and lifestyles. That life lacks passion, vibrancy and intensity is often highlighted in comparisons between America and Nigeria. America as sterile place: loss In The Shivering, Adichie also draws parallels between the passion, the fervour and the vibrancy of catholic sermons in Nigeria as compared with those in America. Father Patrick sprinkles water from a big saltshaker (166). The narrator reflects upon how much more “subdued Catholic masses were in America” (166). In Nigeria, the priest would have been “splashing and swirling holy water” and the “people would have been drenched”.
In Arrangers of Marriage: Chinaza, who is pressured into a “perfect” arranged marriage, discovers first-hand just how sterile life is in America. Her husband encourages her to adopt American customs and to forget her Nigerian habits.
Food becomes a symbol of assimilation: the husband …show more content…
She feels lonely, isolated displaced and alienated . At night “something would wrap around your neck, something that very nearly choked you before you fell asleep” (119). She not only suffers from a lack of control but from the burden of expectations placed upon her by Nigerians at home. Significantly, Adichie uses sentence constructions that refer to Akunna impersonally as “You” and repeat consistently the fact that “you wanted to write because you had stories to tell” but because of her own desperate circumstances “you write to nobody”