Americah By Adichie Summary

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Sacrificing identity in order to be accepted by the majority can be seen as misguided values. Oblation is seen as the human act of giving something up that holds great value in order to benefit with something even more valuable in the future. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s, “Americanah,” a character by the name of Ifemelu is presented to the readers. There is only one life she has come to grow accustomed to which is the country Nigeria. The language, culture, and society is a very dominate part of her heritage and of her judgement that comes from the people who suffocate her into what she claims to know. Upon arriving to America there is a shift that causes Ifemelu to morph into becoming an African-American by carrying the weight of two authoritative …show more content…
She goes through ditches of acculturation and assimilation while trying to merge with the “American Life.” Her very first problem that she encounters is her digestion to the American life. Like the paparazzi to a celebrity every flash of the camera is a appraisal towards her because she comes from Africa so she travels down this continuous path that never ends of fully blending with the American people. Instead of attempting to complete this path of full assimilation, Ifemelu detours into acculturating. Race becomes a huge factor in the novel, Ifemelu has a hard time understanding the notion that race brings in America. This idea of being labeled has never occurred before coming to America. An American-African is an African newly emigrated to the United States. In her native country, she didn’t realize she was black she fit that description only after she landed in America. Being considered “Black” was not something that ran through her blood before arriving to a country where race seems to be the foundation and roots of everything. As said in the novel by Ifemelu, "How many other people had become black in America? (Adichie 366). It calls attention to the fact that identity to a specific group of people is not something that she had to recognize because it was not something that was relatively

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