In Americanah the story is told out of chronological order, as we see
part 1 begin with Ifemulu in the salon at the end of her stay in America. In
the subsequent chapters following part 1, the story is told about her time in
Nigeria, America, and then finally her return to Nigeria. My question that I’m
hoping to answer in this blog post is, what is the author’s purpose in starting
the story of Ifemulu right before she heads back to Nigeria? Interestingly
enough the story is not told from the point of view of Ifemulu looking back at
her time in America, but rather Americanah is told through the present tense.
Adichie’s use of the present tense seems to me to suggest that the author wants
the reader to think about how Ifemulu’s experiences lead her to the
perspectives she holds in Part 1. Contrary to what most Americans would think
about how immigrants view being in America, we learn in part 1 that Ifemulu
wants to go back to Nigeria, “Nigeria became where she was supposed to be… the
only person with whom she had never felt the need to explain herself”(p.7). So
seven pages into the book we have already learned Ifemulu’s motives for going
back to Nigeria, to be with her true love Obinze and to be where “she was
supposed to be”. Most Americans seem to hold the view that immigrants who come
to the United States would want to stay here, so in this way, Ifemulu’s opposing
view on her time in America leads the reader to question what made her want to
leave in the first place. In addition to learning about Ifemulu’s desire to
return to Nigeria, we also get a glimpse of her views on the immigrant women
she meets working in the salon. Ifemulu concludes Part 1 with the name of a
hypothetical blog post about the women in the salon, “How the Pressures of
Immigrant Life Can Make You Act Crazy” (p.22). Along with learning that Ifemulu
started her own lifestyle blog while in the US, we also get a glimpse of her
self-identity. The fact that Ifemulu considers writing about how the pressures
of immigrant life can change a person insinuates that Ifemulu herself also can
relate to the women in the salon in some way that is not yet apparent to the
reader. Additionally, it can be inferred that Ifemulu views herself as removed
from the salon workers despite being an immigrant herself which I think can be
attributed to how Ifemulu self identifies as Nigerian first and foremost.
Ultimately, I think Adiche choose to start Americanah right before Ifemulu goes
back to Nigeria because the author wants us to see her perspective at this
point in time so that we, the readers, consider these perspectives as we hear
the rest of Ifemulu’s story.
This is a great post because it addresses and answers one of the great questions I had while reading the novel, which is why Adichie decided to tell the story out of order. At first, I believed the reason of doing so was to portray that we as Americans often times view our country as the greatest and a top developed country in the world, and how we may be confused as to why someone would prefer to live in a significantly less developed country in Africa. After reading this blog post, my thought process has been strengthened that I do believe Adichie started the story with Ifemelu wanting to go home in order to avoid the patriotic bias, which only would have been reinforced if the novel were to begin with the reader learning of Ifemelu's hardships while she was young.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned at the end of your post how Adichie wants the reader to see Ifemelu's perspective before we hear the rest of the story. While reading I noticed how Ifemelu, despite having a successful blog, relationship, and other seemingly good qualities in her life, still wanted to the leave the United States due to a "piercing homesickness" (Adichie 7). This only caused me as the reader to want to learn about Ifemelu's experiences which made her want to leave the United States so badly.