Americah Essay

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah portrays the life of a women named Ifemelu as she deals with what it means to be “Americanah.” Through Adichie’s writing several reoccurring themes are evident. She analyzes race and racism in America, as well as Nigeria, while also exploring identity, romantic love, separation and connection, and cultural criticism. Throughout the novel Ifemelu suffers a sever identity crisis within herself. She is unsure of who she is, and what she is.
The majority of Americanah is set in a salon, in which Ifemelu had to travel to because the primarily white neighborhood that she lived in offered no salons that braided hair. Throughout the novel, Ifemelu’s hair becomes a symbol of her struggle with personal identity.

It seems apparent that Ifemelu’s identity fluctuates depending on her personal relationships. In the sense of romantic relationships, Ifemelu molds to whom she is dating. With Blaine, an American black and professor at Yale, she finds herself speaking and writing with a more collegiate tone. They don’t bond over much, however find a shared passion for Barack Obama, which holds the relationship together. Curt, the mythical norm in American society, loves Ifemelu, however is more in the love with the fact she is Nigerian than who she is. Obinze is perhaps the only person Ifemelu is her complete self with. She can be outspoken, a feminist, and does not have to identify a nationality to be with him. With Obinze, she does not have to be anything or anyone, which is likely why she is herself with him-she only has to love him. With every relationship, Ifemelu appears incapable of living with her unknown self. She single handedly sabotages her personal relationship-perhaps out of an unwillingness to identify as someone she is not. Although, it also seems apparent that Adichie portrays Ifemelu in various types of relationships to show how they inevitably aide in the search for her personal