Dhruv 1

English Language and Literature

3 February 2023

How does Adichie, from the perspective of Ifemelu, utilize sarcasm and symbolism to describe racial

prejudice in her blog posts from Americanah?

The contemporary novel, Americanah, explores racial ideas through various perspectives, one in

particular being Ifemelu's blog. Despite being published in 2013, it seems like the ideas from the book

still resemble our world accurately, as seen by the racial dynamics and arguments made by Ifemelu. From

a literature lens, this raises a question, "How does Adichie utilize sarcasm and symbolism to describe

racial prejudice in Americanah?" Through a strict analysis on the interactions between the characters and

the usage of literary devices mentioned in the line of inquiry, it can be said that Adichie sheds a negative

light on any sign of racial injustice through Ifemelu's blog posts.

In a post about WASPs(White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) titled, "What Do WASPs Aspire To?"

Ifemelu discusses the idea of racial oppression. “Professor Hunk has a visiting professor colleague, a

Jewish guy with a thick accent from the kind of European country where most people drink a glass of

antisemitism at breakfast" (Adichie 253), the imagery of antisemitism portrayed as a drink during

breakfast shows us the character we are dealing with; a drink is generally connoted as addictive, thus

showing that the colleague might be extremely antisemitic to a point where Jewish struggle is all he can

talk about during breakfast. This is further displayed by the colleague's quote "The blacks have not

suffered like the Jews", which gets a sarcastic response by professor Hunk, "Come on, is this the

oppression olympics?", here the olympics is a symbol of competition, thus oppression olympics implies

the competition about the race that suffered the most. Ifemelu quotes this argument by professor Hunk

because it shows how every minority secretly thinks that they suffered the most, though she points out

how every minority still agrees that they are better than the 'blacks', "However, all the others think they're

better than blacks because, well, they're not black. Take Lili, for example, the coffee-skinned,
 Dhruv 2

black-haired and spanish-speaking woman who cleaned my aunt's house in a New England town. She had

a great hauteur. She was disrespectful, cleaned poorly, made demands'' (253) Lili seems to be a symbol for

the people who prefer to change their identity based on the white societal norms so that they can fit in the

society and gain the "WASP privilege", thus Ifemelu expresses how racial prejudice has got to a point

where the minorities have to change their identity to gain social privileges. This is immediately

discouraged as Lili gets fired by Ifemelu's aunt. Overall, Adichie discourages the idea of "Oppression

olympics'' and racial inauthenticity through the symbolism of Lili.

One of the most prominent examples of Ifemelu expressing her thoughts directly regarding race is

her blog post titled "Thoughts on the Special White Friend ''. The blogpost argues for the notion that

racism is still alive, repeatedly mentioning the white friend. "But some are lucky to have that white friend

who you don't need to explain shit to" (448) - it seems like the white friend is used as a symbol of

acceptance, a friend who understands various opinions based on race and rather than arguing with

sentiments such as "racism is dead", they are willing to listen to the opposing ideas. Whilst the white

friend has a positive connotation, it also displays the hardships faced by black Americans as they need to

find a friend like this only to express their opinions on race. This is tackled by the quote "Let your white

friend say it. If you make the mistake of saying this, you will be accused of a curiosity called playing the

race card (448) - this expands upon the idea of black oppression through the metaphor of playing a 'race

card' as the race card is often used as a dismissive response to a person's claim of racial discrimination.

Reading further, Ifemelu starts to point out arguments made by certain Americans about race - "So there

is, in much of America, a stealthy little notion lying in the hearts of many: that white people earned their

place at jobs and school while black people got in because they were black". (448) The heart may be a

symbolism for emotion, Ifemelu seems to be claiming that people who believe in this notion think merely

with emotions rather than reason, thus their opinion is flawed.

 Dhruv 3

Moving forward, Ifemelu begins talking about slavery, "Have your white friend point out how the

American black deal is kind of like you've been unjustly imprisoned for many years, then all of a sudden

you're set free, but you get no bus fare" (449) - here we notice the usage of sarcasm to criticize the notion

of slavery, Ifemelu shows how black people may have been set free but they do not get relevant resources

to reintegrate into the society but they sure get free bus tickets. The bus fare symbolizes the little

privileges that black people gain that do not matter that much. Ifemelu seems to argue that instead of

giving these little privileges, we should solve the bigger problem; instead of giving black people free bus

fare, we should give them equal opportunities to thrive in society. Overall, it can be seen that Adichie,

from the perspective of Ifemelu, utilizes symbolism and sarcasm to discourage racial oppression on black

Americans.

In conclusion, after analyzing two blogs, it seems that Ifemelu's blogs heavily utilize symbolism

and sarcasm to negatively connote ideas regarding racial oppression and prejudice. Adichie criticizes

common sentiments amongst the racial minorities and the white race, this includes inauthenticity through

Lili, black oppression through metaphors like "playing the race card", and the idea that racism is 'dead'

through sarcasm. All of these incorporate into racial prejudice, hence it can be seen that Adichie utilizes

symbolism and sarcasm to shed a negative light on racial oppression.

 Dhruv 4

Work cited

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. Anchor Books, 2014.