“Arriving at Your Own Door”: Transnational Identity Formation in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) guides readers through the internal questions and external pressures that contribute to identity formation of her transnational characters. This paper examines the specific ways in which Adichie’s protagonist, Ifemelu, engages with both self-discovery and self-fashioning in order to shape the narrative of her past and make a plan for her future. Kwame Anthony Appiah’s The Ethics of Identity offers a philosophical framework to consider the many components of identity formation and the ways in which individuals form personal and collective identities. Adichie uniquely addresses personal and collective identities through the transnational experiences of her characters. Her protagonist, Ifemelu, experiences Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of unhomeliness and seeks belonging as she moves from Nigeria to the United States. More importantly, once she finds ways to belong in the United States, she makes the decision to return to Nigeria. Adichie presents Ifemelu’s story through her braided memories by jumping back and forth between varied experiences of the past and the present. Through Ifemelu’s reflection on her actions to find belonging and fashion her identity in the United States, she crafts a narrative of her experience which helps justify and empower her in the decision to return to Nigeria. Adichie’s characters immerse themselves in literature and the stories around them. Ifemelu, especially, shapes her understanding of the world through the books she reads. She seeks stories which help her imagine her life as a narrative toward self-actualization. Ifemelu discovers that the “single story” for 21st century immigrants in the United States is one of suppressing alterity in order to assimilate. When she first arrives in America, she follows the advice of fellow African immigrants and begins to hide her identity by imitating an American accent and relaxing her hair. She even uses another woman’s name in order to search for a job while she does not have a green card. However, Ifemelu finds this existence unfulfilling and makes the deliberate decision to stop conforming to the expectations placed on her by others. She stops speaking with an American accent and cuts her hair. Rather than feeling more isolated, Ifemelu finds that embracing her alterity allows her to connect to an online African hair movement. She writes a blog in America and gains financial stability and social connections. By expressing herself through writing, Ifemelu further recognizes how she can delineate her worldview and even influence those around her. It is when Ifemelu has the option of staying in America, that she realizes her desire to return to Nigeria. The “single story” of immigration celebrates finding a home in the host country, but Adichie presents a different story through Ifemelu. Adichie shows Ifemelu’s ability to embrace the parts of her identity like her name and accent that make her unique, while she seeks new stories to guide her self-fashioning. As a transnational migrant, Ifemelu views the world from the threshold. She exists in the liminal space between nations, cultures, and languages. This allows her to imagine many possibilities of her life, choose the life she wants, and inspire others to do likewise

Tainted Images: Attitudes Toward Women During the Thirty Years\u27 War

This project examines primary visual and textual documents representing women during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe in order to reveal changing attitudes toward women. Many pamphlets and broadsheets portrayed women in cartoons and propaganda. Women cast as temptresses, warriors, rulers, angels, demons, and peasants visually reflected the fears and attitudes of Europeans. Sometimes printers presented women as allegorical figures representing peace or victory or as comedic figures who upset gender conventions. Before the Thirty Years’ War, many of these female figures were not representatives of any particular religion. However, during the Thirty Years’ War, both Catholics and Protestants used violent or sinful images of women not of their confession to undercut the virtue of religious groups different from their own. Therefore, Catholic and Protestant attitudes toward women became increasingly negative during the war. These attitudes, revealed through propaganda, shaped women’s lives as guilds, camp communities, and individual cities increased restrictions on them. The most significant changes for women during this period were limitations to economic opportunities, restrictions of cooking and trading roles in the army, and an increased stress on women’s virtue as representative of a virtuous Protestant or Catholic society. The image of morally weak women in broadsheets and woodcuts sheds new light on changing gender roles within and between the contending religious groups of the Thirty Years’ War. It reflects the complex relationship between propaganda and social change

Americanization and the National Catholic War Council

In the United States, the First World War emboldened citizens to promote patriotism and the qualities of America in which they truly believed. Catholic Americans responded heartily to this call for Americanization. They formed the National Catholic War Council, a service organization that worked in cities across America as well as in France. The NCWC strove to teach immigrants the essentials of American citizenship, prove Catholic loyalty to America, and form the foundations for a more cohesive American community. Much of the work carried out by the National Catholic War Council occurred in Catholic Community Houses around the country. These houses fell under the direction of Catholic lay women, who were known as secretaries. They entered the impoverished neighborhoods of immigrants and encouraged both a preservation of the Catholic faith and an acceptance of American citizenship. This research will examine the challenges confronted by the Women’s Committee of the National Catholic War Council through their work in community houses around the country. Primary documents including reports and letters written by secretaries and others associated with the Women’s Committee of the NCWC will be analyzed to better understand the individual and collective Americanization goals of the NCWC. Furthermore, reports of success in the actualization of these goals will better shape an understanding of the influence the NCWC had on American society

Catholic Americanization: The Work of NCWC Community Houses (1919-1921)

During WWI, the National Catholic War Council (NCWC) encouraged patriotism among American Catholics to aid in the war effort and prove Catholic loyalty to America. As many immigrants at this time were Catholic, the NCWC especially promoted patriotism in Catholic immigrant communities. Toward the end of WWI, the NCWC established National Catholic Community Houses in cities across America. Catholic laywomen, called “secretaries,” ran the houses by organizing classes and activities. These programs were often meant to Americanize immigrants by instructing them in such things as English, living skills, and American civics. In our research, we specifically examine the community houses in Cincinnati, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These houses similarly conducted Americanization work but also took on unique projects to fit the needs of the communities they served. The National Catholic Community House in Cincinnati was located in an area that was home to a large population of Hungarian immigrants. Due to the reluctance of the youth population to attend the classes offered by the Community House, the secretaries were forced to employ creative methods to reach this demographic. The NCWC also established two houses in Milwaukee, one in the Polish district and one in the Italian district. The community houses there became temporary boarding houses for many girls entering the city for work. As these girls did not always meet the moral standards of the secretaries, the secretaries learned to adapt and address the unique situations of each girl. This often meant that they had to meet girls where they were in regards to morals and lifestyles