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Characterization Ifemelu - Americanah
Characterization Ifemelu - Americanah, englisch lk
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Characterization Ifemelu „Americanah“Ifemelu is the protagonist in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie´s novel “Americanah” who is the Ex-
girlfriend from university of Obinze. Since they split, 15 years have passed and Ifemelu has
immigrated to the US where she just finished an fellowship at Princeton University. Now she
decides to return home to Nigeria because of a job offer as a features editor for a woman´s
magazine.
In the following I will characterize Ifemelu based on how she is presented in the given extracts.
Ifemelu is a successful woman living as an immigrant in the US, sharing her accommodation with
an African-American man who works at Yale university (p.242, l.21 f.). Ifemelu herself just finished
a fellowship at Princeton university which is also a prestigious university in the US (p.245, ll.1-3).
From this information it can be concluded that Ifemelu is living quite an expensive lifestyle which is
probably pretty much the opposite from the average living conditions in Nigeria, where she´s
originally from. Since we don´t know anything about her living standards in Nigeria before she
emigrated, it cannot be said whether her lifestyle has changed a lot or not, although we do know
that she studied in Nigeria, since she met Obinze this way, and can conclude that she did not
belong into the lower class population in Nigeria.
Speaking of Obinze, another character trait that becomes obvious is that Ifemelu still cares about
their relationship even after 15 years of not seeing each other. This can be seen by the E-mail that
she wrote Obinze calling him “ceiling” which is her nickname for him (p.242, l.8). She doesn´t react
angry to a intentionally mean message, although she is described as usually tart concerning
provocative messages (p.242, ll.34-36), which really shows that the relationship still means
something to her.
Furthermore, the reader gets the impression that Ifemelu is quite arrogant and self-centered which
is portrayed by her attitude towards Aunty Onenu who runs the magazine “Zoe” that Ifemelu has
received a job offer from to work for as a features editor.
She faked certain parts of her CV (p.245, l.4) to seem more fitting for the job and it is also revealed
that she plans on taking over the magazine and believes that she can manage to make the
magazine more vibrant and sell it better than Aunty Onenu does (p.246, ll. 49-53).
Her arrogance also shows when she speaks to her friend about her fellowship knowing that she
never heard of such a thing. She feels a “perverse pleasure” (p.245, ll.6 f.) in thinking of herself as
better than others. This also portrays a quite competitive nature of hers which additionally shows
another aspect of why she wants to take over “Zoe”.
In the extracts it becomes clear that Ifemelu has changed a lot during her time in America. An
example of this is her business mentality that shows a lot of western influence. Ifemelu thinks that
the Nigerian way of blurring out the boundaries between personal life and work is unprofessional
and personally, she would never invite her employees home (p.146, l.53 f.)
She also criticizes that “Zoe” is only Aunty Onenu´s Hobby and not her passion which is a sign to
her that she cannot be taken seriously as the owner and founder of the magazine (p. 245, ll. 18-
24).
Another aspect that presents how much she has changed is her point of view towards Nigerian
architecture. Looking at Aunty Onenu´s house she thinks about how 15 years ago she would have
found it beautiful but now she considers it as ugly. Furthermore she doesn´t notice the generator
house and it´s size which every “true Lagosian” (p.246, l.121) would have noticed (p.246, ll.110-
123). This proves that she has been highly influenced by western culture.
In conclusion one can say that Ifemelu is a quite arrogant person and living in the US resulted in
her becoming more self-centered and adapting the point of view of a western person which often
splits with the Nigerian point of view. However, she still has a caring side to her which becomes
clear when she e-mails Obinze and it also appears that a lot of her character traits result from her
eagerness to get what she wants and be successful in life.
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