Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a novel, which is a cultural opprobrium of Nigeria and America. This novel points out the materialistic desires of Nigeria—how women want to marry rich, and the wealthy are supposed to be automatically respected. As well as the racism, racial hierarchy, and real struggles with American freedom that Ifemelu faces when she comes to the “Land of The Free.” These cultural criticisms support our American exceptionalist views; therefore, considering the other novels and film we have explored and discusses in class, Americanah would fit into the class curriculum and support the exceptionalism America has. Adichie focuses on the Nigerian culture of materialism—where most people get rich through fraud or deception; the
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Her aunt gives her a fake identity card, which she gets a job “helping” a tennis coach just to earn one hundred dollars. Eventually, Ifemelu takes a job helping Kimberly and her children. The audience starts to see the racism and racial hierarchy within America when Ifemelu answers to door for the carpet cleaner, he acts hostile until Ifemelu informs him that she is just the “help.” Then he relaxes and becomes friendly towards her. This shows the racial hierarchy because the carpet cleaner was going to be extremely uncomfortable if this black woman was rich enough to own that house; but since she was a lower status than him, he became comfortable again. Racial hierarchy is an example of American exceptionalism,
“She would begin the blog post “sometimes in America, race is class” with the story of his dramatic change, and end with: it didn’t matter to him how much money I had. As far as he was concerned I did not fit as the owner of that stately house because of the way I looked. In America’s public discourse, “blacks” as a whole are often lumped with “poor whites.” not poor blacks and poor whites. But blacks and poor whites.” (Adichie
Her aunt gives her a fake identity card, which she gets a job “helping” a tennis coach just to earn one hundred dollars. Eventually, Ifemelu takes a job helping Kimberly and her children. The audience starts to see the racism and racial hierarchy within America when Ifemelu answers to door for the carpet cleaner, he acts hostile until Ifemelu informs him that she is just the “help.” Then he relaxes and becomes friendly towards her. This shows the racial hierarchy because the carpet cleaner was going to be extremely uncomfortable if this black woman was rich enough to own that house; but since she was a lower status than him, he became comfortable again. Racial hierarchy is an example of American exceptionalism,
“She would begin the blog post “sometimes in America, race is class” with the story of his dramatic change, and end with: it didn’t matter to him how much money I had. As far as he was concerned I did not fit as the owner of that stately house because of the way I looked. In America’s public discourse, “blacks” as a whole are often lumped with “poor whites.” not poor blacks and poor whites. But blacks and poor whites.” (Adichie