Americanah
is a fiction book, giving the allure that the messages are not applicable to real
life. However, this is not the case in Americanah, as Adichie uses the blog
posts to connect to the audience. Not only does this allow relevance in the
book, but it enables the readers to contemplate and analyze their lives.
Adichie
however does not dive immediately into radical concepts, instead her initial
blog posts cover less controversial or offensive materials as seen on page 129
where Adichie writes “Hispanic means the frequent companions of American Blacks
in poverty rankings”. This is not radical, but it does speak truth to the
readers, it draws attention to the plight of racism, but it does not galvanize
it.
As the reader proceeds throughout
the book the blog posts get increasingly radical as seen on page 227 in her entry
Understanding America for the Non-American Black: American Tribalism where she
depicts the four prongs of tribalism in America; class, ideology, region, and
race. This entry is more descriptive than the previous posts as it depicts how
no matter what White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP’s) will always be at the top
of the hierarchy ladder, and American Blacks are at the bottom. This is Adichie
driving her beliefs and ideas into the readers, by inserting a blog post
enshrined around controversial topics she is able to reach the readers as they
now see that there is a real element to this novel and the problems with race
are much worse that most people anticipate.
She further cements a
connection to the readers in her blog post about President Barack Obama on page
264 through page 266 wherein she describes how men of color have exotic quotas,
White, Native American, or Asian for their women, but not Obama. He married a woman
who is physically darker than he is, Adichie explains the relevance to this
when she writes “And this is the reason dark women love Barack Obama. He broke
the mold! He married one of their own.” Through this passage on a former
American president she has established a bond between the readers and herself
that allows her to truly implant beliefs in the reader’s brain.
Later in the book she begins
to utilize the bond she has established and truly shock the readers to their
core as seen from pages 429 through 431, the checklist on white privilege. This
is truly a reality check for most people as all white people will answer yes to
at least this point, “When you use the “nude” color of underwear and Band-Aids
do you already know that it will not match your skin?” And that is what she has
been trying to illuminate to the readers throughout the entire book, that if
you are white you experience white privilege and therefore have had an easier
life then people of color.
Through the blog posts
Adichie can deeply connect to the readers and truly detail an issue that cannot
be ignored.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with you, in the sense that Adichie utilizes the blog post as her most raw, and realistic way of approaching real-life issues within a fiction novel. While the blog posts do create a more in-depth connection to the reader, they can also serve as the source of tumultuous uproar for unhappy American readers. I believe Adichie utilizes the informalness of the blogging structure itself, coupled with Ifemelu’s dominating trait of speaking her mind, to shock the real-world reader with modern hot-button issues such as race, stereotyping, and the ignorance of the American people.
ReplyDeleteBut your post also reminded me of one of the values of the blog not really discussed in class - their strong incentive to pull at the heartstrings of the reader. Yes, Adichie is somewhat attacking American idealisms, but as a specifically white American reader, how can one read the “White Privilege Checklist” (pgs. 429-421) and not feel sorrowful? The blog posts often bring spouts of anger or disagreement from American readers, and yet at the same time, Adichie is able to weave emotional sentiment throughout them. By taking a step back from her posts that at first seem to only attack American culture, underneath, the reader gets a glimpse into the true disturbances African Americans, and African blacks grapple and suffer with. Not only do her posts deliver messages that often remain unsaid, but they also attempt to draw a true type of despondency from the reader.