Obinze is in London on an expired visa and set to marry Cleotilde in a green card marriage. He keeps getting pushed around by the Angolan men because they are asking for more and more money, and Obinze and Cleotilde are not able to leave because the men have her passport. Obinze finally turns to Emenike, an old friend from school who is also living in London. They are not really friends, but they have the commonality of their school to bring them together. Obinze asks for money from Emenike who gives Obinze double what he asks for. Eventually Obinze ends up at dinner with Emenike and his wife Georgina. Obinze watches how Emenike interacts with his wife and the staff at the reasturant and there is this aura around Emenike. Obinze finally figures out it is “Self-satisfaction, that was the difference in him. He was married to a British woman, lived in a British home, worked at a British job, traveled on a British passport, said ‘exercise’ to refer to a mental rather than a physical activity. He had longed for this life, and never quite believed he would have it” (Adichie 330).
Emenike seems different because he has achieved what he wanted. To what degree was he joyful for having certain things such as the British wife and British job, versus having sold himself out to a new culture?
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.
I think Emenike doesn’t look at his new life style as a ‘new culture.’ I think he found love in a different place than where he had grown up and he was focused on what he loved about his new life and kind of assimilated to some of the things that she was used to, just as I would assume she did to him. I think he still has his old culture, but has adapted to make their relationship work since he seems to really care about Georgina. An example of this would be when Emenike is discussing how he was waiting for a cab and a cab was coming with its light on and as it approached him and noticed he was a black man, he turned the light cab off until he passed him. Emenike was angry about the situation, but “Emenike had told Obinze this story before and he was struck now by how differently Emenike told it,” and Obinze continues to talk about how Emenike’s telling of the story in front of all of them was different (Adichie 341). I do not believe Emenike has progressed into a “new culture,” but has changed the way he presents himself to certain people. According to this part in the novel, Emenike is angry about the cab incident and tells both Obinze and Georgia about it, but depending on who he is telling it with he filters himself. The way he told Obinze the story is how Emenike had always been, I don’t think he has really changed his culture.
Based on this, do you think there is a difference between filtering yourself/putting on an act versus considering yourself to be part of a new culture? What truly makes someone part of a new culture?
Citation: Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. Anchor Books, 2014.