Analysis Of Aunty Uju In America

Moving to a new country comes with a lot of challenges that people need to overcome. Overcoming culture shock is often the biggest challenges that people face, as adapting to a new culture is very difficult. In Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ifemelu, the protagonist, experiences culture shock when she moves to the U.S. from Nigeria, for university. Ifemelu details many of her experiences, especially those pertaining to race, in a blog she writes. Ifemelu wrote a blog titled To My Fellow Non-American Blacks: In America, You are Black, Baby in which she discusses (page 273-275) on black identity in the U.S. and how she adapts to it. Her blog post and the entire book describes how Ifemelu experienced race in the U.S., in addition to teaching

This is the other story in the collection, which is told in the second person and it is considered the more powerful one by many reviewers. This story looks back eighteen years to an incident in the narrator’s childhood, one which has had a major impact on her whole life. The narrator reflects on the last summer before everything changed – her parents divorced, she never returned to Nigeria or saw her father’s family again. The memory begins eighteen years earlier in Nigeria at grandmamma’s place where the American-Nigerian narrator, her older brother Nonso and her cousin Dozie were all staying. Grandmamma favoured Nonso as the eldest grandson and the only one to carry the ‘Nnabuisi name’

After Nwoye’s childhood, he discovers the trouble he has with pleasing his father, and Okonkwo always contradicts Nwoye about not having the same or even more status as Okonkwo had when he was his age. Nwoye will never be the “great farmer and great man” Okonkwo wants him to be, during society at this time, opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative was very admirable (33). With the type of negative feedback, Nwoye receives from his father saying that he will amount to nothing, shows how Nwoye develops insecurity with his identity as an Ibo citizen. Contradictingly, Okonkwo is very pleased and rather arrogant with his status in matter of the village. He is already one of the “greatest” men of his time starting from his youth when in Ibo culture age was respected. The setting of Nigeria plays a major role in the identity of Nwoye and Okonkwo seeing that prosperity for men at that time is having wealth and potent personality. Okonkwo was obviously successful in terms of riches; he owned a huge barn full with yams, the king of all crops, and has three wives. During this time Okonkwo lives a lush life and could not have been more proud of who he is identified as. Having the drive to accomplish significance in life, Okonkwo’s achievements were admired by most people in the village, showing “if a

African society, influenced by its traditional economy, held strict gender roles, and Ekwefi stayed in the home and focused on traditional female tasks. Although African American society in the twentieth century prized women and elevated females to powerful matriarchal positions in the family, pre-colonial Nigeria in no way tolerated women outside the bounds of the home. Ekwefi lives “in perpetual fear of [Okonkwo’s] fiery temper,” and pours herself into raising her daughter, Ezinma (Achebe 13). Because Okonkwo fails to respect the religious customs and “beat” his wife “very heavily” during the “Week of Peace,” others in clan lose respect for him and his family, and Ekwefi can do very little to change this (Achebe 29) . To deal with her husband’s inadequacies, Ekwefi pours herself into Ezinma and raises her to exhibit strength and bravery. Because Okonkwo and traditional Nigerian society hailed masculinity as supreme and despised femininity, Ekwefi knew that in order to appease Okonkwo’s anger, she must raise her child to exhibit these characteristics, despite her gender. Her strategy proved successful, as “Okonkwo was specially fond of Ezinma,” but only showed his “fondness on very rare occasions” (Achebe 44). Furthermore, Okonkwo repeatedly states that Ezinma “should have been a boy,” (Acehbe 64) because he loves her, but continually

Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus is a story set in Nigeria told from the perspective of Kambili and her journey towards independence; along the way, she looks to the female role models in her life, each which aid her path to liberation. Mama and Aunty Ifeoma are two vital female characters to the development of the story but with stark contrasts; Mama’s submissive and reserved demeanor provides a perfect foil to Aunty’s outgoing and independent personality. They both influence Adichie’s bildungsroman, but how they aid Kambili’s endeavor is strikingly different. Mama and Aunty Ifeoma represent the female figures in Kambili’s life; Mama shows Kambili to submit to the men in her life, while Aunty Ifeoma opens up the idea of being independent and free thinking. Mama stresses submission and dependency as a sacrifice to tradition while Aunty Ifeoma emphasizes independent thought to embrace oneself and progress over all others. The way that these two women uphold themselves throughout the novel, demonstrates how these patriarchal societies, like the one in Nigeria, restrict women like Mama, while women like Aunty are deemed rebellious to society.

“I was born in Nigeria, I came to Maryland when i was still in diapers…” Omokore insures her cultural roots remain a part of her everyday life. Although she can’t speak her language, yoruba, she can understand it well. At age one Omokore and her mother moved from Nigeria to Maryland, where her grandmother was living, due

Chimamanda Adichie gives audience examples in order of time. She begins with her impression on British and American literature, compared with that of Nigera together with her experience with Fide’s family. Chimamanda then mentions her interaction with her roommate and university professor, presenting the fact that other people feel sorry for her as she is an African. Those proves the fact that stereotype can rob people’s dignity and hurt their hearts. Though there are great amount of catastrophes, a great many people failed to see the positive side of Africa. In addition, she shows her guilty after she finds that she was deceived by notorious stories about Mexican. Chimamamda reasons that a stereotype is created through consistent repeat on only a single story, which makes people unconsciously generate

Emigrating to the United States has affected where I am today. Moving abroad is the starting point to understanding who I was and who I have grown to be. My life before being part of an innovative nation, I was born to believe that women were only created to raise a family, cook, clean, and keep their heads down. No one ever mentioned that I could conquer any challenges that came my way or how I carried a voice within me that could influence the lives around me. The novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie brushes on different scenarios where she also encounters gender discrimination during her time in Lagos, Nigeria.

Aunty Uju, Ifemelu’s aunt, struggles with discrimination and love as well. Multiple times throughout the novel, this idea of discrimination against people who are black, comes into play. Not just are the characters in the novel black, but they are Nigerian, which directly relates to the way Aunty Uju sounds and the accent she has. People do sound different when they are from a different country, or even state, but it gives a certain identity in a way in which someone may not think of themselves as. Aunty Uju is a very intelligent woman who has a degree to become a doctor. She is also the mistress to a general and lives off of his money because her skin tone leads her to believe that she can not get a job as a doctor in America. Aunty Uju and The General’s love is not true for he treats her as lesser even though she has a doctorate degree. Along with being a mistress, she is also a mother of a boy named Dike. Dike has multiple issues he faces that lead him to a suicidal attempt. Aunty Uju tries to fit into the mold of an “American”, when she clearly, is

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor and critic. He is mainly known for his trilogy that investigates, using fiction, the history of Nigeria. The trilogy begins with Things Fall Apart, followed by No Longer at Ease and ended with Arrow of God. Furthermore, in this critically analytical essay, through a feminist perspective, a chapter of his second novel, No Longer at Ease, published in 1960, will be discussed. The setting of the novel is Lagos, Nigeria and Umuofia, Nigeria during the 1950s, before Nigeria attained independence from Great Britain. The novel, No Longer at Ease begins with Obi Okonkwo on trial, charged for accepting a bribe. However, using flashback, the author takes us back to the point before Obi’s departure

Aunty Uju begins her advice by saying that Ifemelu was in a country that was “not your own” and that she will have to “do what you have to do” in order to succeed. Seeing that Ifemelu is already an immigrant who comes from Nigeria, a place that clashes with America, trying to fit in is a huge challenge for her.

I trust she is well in America?’ He always asks about our daughter. He often drove my wife and me to visit her at the College of Medicine in Enugu. I remember that when Ebere died, he came with his relatives for mgbalu and gave a touching, if rather long, speech about how well Ebere had treated him when he was our driver, how she gave him our daughter’s old clothes for his children” (Adichie

This paper reflects the novel “Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe in 1958. Achebe gives an overview of pre-colonialism and post-colonialism on Igbo, detailing how local traditions and cultural practices can “fall apart” in some scenarios through some introduced, externally created hassles elevated because of colonization. The protagonist named Okonkwo mentioned in the story is a proof showing the lifestyle of the tribe. My main objective and focus is to lay emphasis on Africa specifically the Igbo society, before and after the arrival of the Europeans in Umuofia community; the results of their arrival concerning Igbo culture, thus leading to the clash of cultures between the two categories. I will also draw on post-colonialism with respect to globalization.

Any prodigy then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him?” (pg.8). Unoka’s failure in graceful a memorable premise within Umuofia is what gives Okonkwo the strive to effort for grandeur. The standards present in Umuofia have not yet been impacted by European colonialism, and, as such, give penetration to the “original” esteem of Igbo doctrine. As a rise, Adichie is capable to necessity these standards as a basis to create her own father-son functioning by delineate the relationship between Eugene and Papa Nnukwu through a separate pantoscope.While Okonkwo’s company in Umuofia underscores the subject of ownership and condition, Eugene’s more contemporary participation in Enugu prioritization Catholic moral code, those which were derived from colonialism. The variance between Eugene and Papa Nnukwu is due to a element difference in godly ideology. Eugene, who is Catholic, instills in his people the notion that contageous part in or even observing any Igbo doctrine is a crime. This conviction occasion a durable relationship with his generator infeasible, and precedence to the estrangement of Papa Nnukwu in Eugene’s

In Americanah by Adichie Ngozi Chimamanda, the characters Ifemelu and Dike undergo two different experiences of race in America. Ifemelu, coming from Nigeria, has never witnessed what it means to be “black” because in Nigeria she is simply Nigerian; there are no grey areas with race there. Her cousin Dike, on the other hand, has only experienced “blackness” in America because he is born into it. Throughout the novel, Ifemelu struggles to assimilate because she is trying to understand race in America. While, Dike is seemingly numb to any social injustices that occur to him because he has grown up around it. Using Ifemelu and Dike, Adichie highlights how the realities of racial inequality force Non American Black people to confront their expectations surrounding their immigration; but ultimately their confrontation often results in a major loss of identity in hopes of dealing with reaching the ideal American dream.