Character Changes In Americah

Going to a country that is nothing like you own is a difficult task. Trying to live there is even harder as nobody acts, does or has the same morals as you did back in your home country. Throughout this novel, most of the characters that move to a new country change themselves in order for them to succeed or fit in. They change so much about themselves, even things that they don’t notice, that when they go back home they stand out just as much,”She’ll come back and be a serious Americanah”.
In the novel “Americanah”, characters such as Ifemelu, Obinze and Aunty Uju leave their home country Nigeria and move to a more westernised country, America or England, as to try and escape the hardships of their hometown. When they leave they find out …show more content…
In the end her counsellor Ruth told her, “My only advice? Lose the braids and straighten your hair. Nobody says this kind of stuff but it matters”. When she gets her hair relaxed, it burned her skull so drastically that her hair started to fall out. When she finally decided to go to work her co-workers thought that her changing her hair meant something political or that she was a lesbian.
Obinze went to England with his mother on a working visa and in order for him to stay there he had to get married to an England citizen in order for him to get a green card. He arranged for an arranged marriage with two Angolan men. He was planning on marrying a girl by the name of Cleotilde and divorce her just after the marriage was final. “You can still get married even though your visa is expired. In fact, getting married is now your only choice”.
All of these characters changed themselves in one way or the other, in order to succeed in their new country. By doing this they started to lose a bit of their own identity and so when they went back home, they didn’t fit in there