Brian Little

ENG 211

Cajsa Baldini

11 February 2022

Chapter 23 of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah sets in on a bleak and dreary

London as the backdrop for a reset in focalization of the narrator to that of Obinze. The image

that the reader had of Obinze through Ifemelu’s perspective was that of a young man who was

driven and self-assured, but as the plot has moved us media in res into Obinze’s story, we are

meeting an almost entirely different character whose surroundings seem to be a harbinger for his

future in this foreign land. The narration in this chapter begins midstream and works its way

backwards to first show the circumstances of Obinze’s arranged marriage in the UK and then to

show the circumstances under which Obinze found himself in a country he never really wanted

to live in. The dynamic focalization that Adichie employs shows the reader that both Ifemelu and

Obinze have struggled in their own separate, but similar ways in new countries, but it is her use

of ocularization and Obinze’s interior monologue, memories, as well as the narrated perception

that ultimately lead the reader to feel a sense of doom for his time in England and change our

perspective of his character since Ifemelu left him.

The narration described night in London, “it hung in the morning air like a threat, and

then in the afternoon a blue-gray dusk descended, and the Victorian buildings all wore a

mournful air” (281). It is this cold environment that Obinze has found himself in while he now

seeks an arranged marriage in this jump in the narration. The sensory details used in the text,

particularly in this chapter, paint Obinze’s demeanor and outlook in a much poorer way than the

reader could have imagined to this point in the novel. The narrator tell us, “It was at a tube

station that he met the Angolans who would arrange his marriage…”(281). One can imagine

what an underground rail station might be like: dirty, damp, and probably smelling quite badly. It

is in this place that Obinze had met the men who would see to it that his “sham marriage” (286)

be carried out. This simply does not match the charming, educated young man that we had

known before. When he met the woman that was his bride-to-be, Cleotilde, he was surprised at

her appearance. “He had expected somebody with pockmarks smothered under heavy makeup,

somebody tough and knowing. But here she was, dewy and fresh, bespectacled, olive-skinned,

almost childlike, smiling shyly at him and sucking a milkshake through a straw. She looked like

a university freshman who was innocent or dumb, or both.” (283). These details tell us that when

he sought the Angolans help with this marriage, it was Obinze’s assumption that this was a

service that they were used to providing, so he was surprised to find the woman he was to wed be

so innocent .This raises additional questions about how badly both Obinze and Cleotilde are

being taken advantage by these men. “Obinze wondered how the Angolans knew her. Did they

have a list of young women with European Union passports who needed money?” (283). Later,

the novel suggests that he was rightly suspicious of this situation as the Angolans sent him to

“sort out” documents for him so he could get a marriage license. “Obinze met Brown at the train

station in Barking; he stood near the gate as agreed, amid the bustle of people, looking around

and waiting for his phone to ring because Brown had refused to give him a phone number.”

(286). All of this use of ocularization gives the reader a deeper perspective of Obinze’s situation

when trying to interpret the narrative.

 When Obinze went to register his marriage with Cleotilde, he saw behind the registrar’s

desk a board with dates of marriages on it. He saw an old schoolmate’s name there and a

memory of his time back in Nigeria overwhelmed him. “The memory, clear as a light beam, took

Obinze back to a time when he still believed the universe would bend according to his will.

Melancholy descended on him as he left the building.” (287). If simply seeing an old

schoolmate’s name is to bring such strong feelings to the fore, this is clearly a young man who is

homesick, but seems to have pride that won’t allow him to accept these feelings within himself.

This memory resets our timeline and the narration sets us back to before Obinze had left Nigeria.

He had been so determined, even well before he had met Ifemelu, to live in America to the

chagrin of his mother. “He sensed, in her voice, the sadness of defeat, as though her friends who

were leaving for teaching positions in Canada and America had confirmed to her a great personal

failure. For a moment he felt as if he, too, had betrayed her by having his own plan: to get a

postgraduate degree in America, to work in America, to live in America.” (287). Despite his

mother’s reticence, Obinze immediately applied for a visa at the American embassy in Lagos

after graduating from university. He was denied. He tried three more times and denied each time

due to “terrorism fears” (289) after 9/11. However restrained Obinze’s relationship had become

with his mother, one day she offered him a chance to make his way there by way of England.

“I’m going to put your name on my British visa application as my research assistant,” she said

quietly. “That should get you a six-month visa.” (290). She told him, “Maybe you can get to

America from there. I know that your mind is no longer here.” (290). The fraying relationship

between the two characters begins to mirror the similarly fractured relationship between Ifemelu

and her mother. However, Obinze respects his mother in a way that I’m not sure Ifem does. It is

 out of this respect that comes the guilt that Obinze is feeling for not fulfilling his own

expectations for himself. “If anybody else had lied for him, it would not have mattered as much

or even at all, but she lied for him and he got the six month visa to the United Kingdom and he

felt, even before he left, like a failure.” (290). Not only did he feel that he had disappointed his

mother because he did not feel the same pride and magnetism of their home country, but that he

didn’t succeed with what he thought to be a more idealized life plan. It is in these different

apperceptions the narrative shows us both explicit in the dialogue and implicit in the text that we

find Obinze to be a much more downtrodden character and leave the reader feeling that things

will not work out well in this scheme he has gotten himself wrapped up in.

Jumping into this chapter media in res when switching focalization to Obinze was an

effective choice by Adichie in efficiently informing the reader what is happening with his

character, foreboding what will happen to his character later in the novel, easily jumping

backward in the plot via flashback to give us the circumstances that led to him being in England

in the first place, and also shows the reader the parallels of his journey as well as Ifemelu’s. Her

use of focalization, ocularization, and apperceptions of Obinze, Cleotilde, and the narrator all

lead the reader to feel that a sense of darkness has followed Obinze to the UK and his dreams

don’t feel as close to reality as they once did.