Americanah

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Chapters 14-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 14 Summary

At her college orientation, Ifemelu is spoken to condescendingly by a student worker and realizes that her foreign accent makes Americans think she doesn’t speak English. She begins to practice an American accent. Though her schoolwork is easy compared to that in Nigeria, she dislikes having to participate in class discussions. She decides to be a communications major, yet is baffled by the way Americans communicate—they avoid giving direct instructions and use phrases like “you’re all set” (165). She worries about money, borrowing textbooks from friends. Eager to understand the new world around her, Ifemelu begins to read American books and discusses them with Obinze. “And as she read, America’s mythologies began to take on meaning” (167). Slowly, she begins to incorporate American words into her speech, much to Obinze’s amusement.

During a class discussion on the use of racial slurs in the movies Roots, an African student debates with an American-born black student. The African student, Wambui, invites Ifemelu to a meeting with the African Students Association. Ifemelu makes friends, finds kinship in the students’ struggles, and is offered job hunting tips. Though she goes on more interviews, she still does not find a job. Uju calls her to complain about Dike, now a third grader, who was found in his daycare’s closet with a girl, both of them showing each other their genitals. Uju blames this on the daycare, but Ifemelu has learned about child psychology at college, and assures Uju this is normal behavior. Uju disagrees and states her intention to move with Bartholomew to rural Massachusetts.

Chapter 15 Summary

Ifemelu answers an advertisement for a female personal assistant. The potential employer, a tennis coach, greets her and shows her around his apartment. He informs her that despite what was written in the ad, he is looking for someone to help him “relax” (177). Ifemelu will be expected to massage him, with the clear implications of sexual activity afterwards. Ifemelu asks for time to consider this, noting that “He had said this to many other women, she could tell…He was not a kind man” (177). She continues to look for other jobs without success. Despite her protests, Obinze sends her some money.

Ginika gets her an interview with a former employer, Kimberly, who needs a babysitter. Kim, a kind woman with “A clean heart” (181), takes to Ifemelu immediately, calling her name “beautiful” (180). While Ifemelu is amused and slightly irked by Kim’s desire to please, commenting positively but incorrectly on Nigerian customs and culture, she is put off by Laura, Kim’s sister, who seems like “a hawk, sharp-beaked and dark-minded.” The interview goes well, but Ginika calls later, apologetically saying that Kim hired someone else. Ifemelu falls behind on the rent and sinks into depression, “unable to visualize tomorrow” (187).

Defeated, she visits the tennis coach and allows him to touch her in exchange for money. She becomes sexually aroused despite her humiliation and fear, and despises herself for it. She stops returning calls from Ginika, Uju, and Obinze, “lost in a vicious haze” (192). Then, Ginika calls. Kim’s babysitter has fallen through, and Ifemelu has the job. Ginika picks Ifemelu up for her first day of work and urges her to see a therapist for her depression.

Chapter 16 Summary

Kim gives Ifemelu a signing bonus, allowing her to pay rent and send money home. She cuts off all contact with Obinze, unable to face him after what happened with the tennis coach. He writes her emails, which she deletes, and letters, which she throws away unopened. She gets to know Kim’s children: Taylor, a “playful” elementary school student and Morgan, a preteen with a “mourning demeanor” (197). At first, she dislikes Morgan, but eventually comes to understand her better. She grows increasingly annoyed with Laura, who uses racially-tinged words like “sassy” (200) to describe Ifemelu and is also frustrated by Kim’s insistent apologizing. Nonetheless, she moves into Kim’s basement and experiences moments of discomfort when other people, such as the carpet cleaner, assume she is the owner and dislike her for it.

At one of Kim’s parties, the guests shock Ifemelu with their strange and broad generalizations about Africa. Uju calls, complaining about Dike again. Dike has not taken the move to Massachusetts well and is now imbued “with a weariness too heavy for a child” (211). He is the only black student in his class, and now wants to know more about his father. His school is trying to place him in special education classes, claiming he is too aggressive. Aunty Uju refuses, saying, “‘He is brighter than all of them combined’” (212).

Chapter 14-16 Analysis

At this point, Ifemelu begins to adapt. After a college orientation worker speaks condescendingly to her, assuming she doesn’t speak English, Ifemelu begins to practice an American accent. During a phone call with Obinze, she uses the word “excited” in a uniquely American way, begins to do laundry rather than hand wash clothing each night, and learns to participate in class. She also begins to embrace American social customs and modes of thinking, even passing them on to unbelieving Nigerian relatives. When Dike is caught showing his genitals to another child at his daycare, Uju is incensed, but Ifemelu is unconcerned. “‘It’s normal’” (174), she assures Uju, adding that she learned about it in her university classes. Uju is not convinced. She is too set in her ways to meld two worlds and perspectives, but Ifemelu is not. Though she will always be Nigerian first, she comes to appreciate aspects of American thought.

During her first job as a babysitter, Ifemelu truly encounters racism for the first time, in the form of Kim, her boss, and Laura, Kim’s sister. The two sisters represent benevolent and antagonistic racism, respectively. Laura displays a more overt form of racism, responding to the Nigerian teachers’ strike with, “‘Horrible, what’s going on in African countries’” (181). She equates all countries in Africa, conflating many cultures and peoples into an amorphous blob. She assumes Ifemelu wasn’t eating good food, uses racially tinged words like “sassy” (200), and researches corruption in Nigeria, smugly reporting it back to Ifemelu. Though Ifemelu likes Kim, who she considers to have a “clean heart” (181), Kim exhibits a subtler, kinder, but still corrosive racism. She considers those living in poverty to be noble and happy, despite their destitution. She overuses the word “beautiful” (181) when talking about people of color. When she refers to Nigeria as having a “rich culture” (180), Ifemelu notes that Kim would not consider Norway to have “a rich culture” (180). Kim apologizes for Laura’s slights, but even this begins to annoy Ifemelu. “Kimberley’s repeated apologies were tinged with self-indulgence, as though she believed she could, with apologies, smooth all the scalloped surfaces of the world” (201).