Notions of the American Dream in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel "Americanah"

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1.0, University of Constance (FB Literatur, Kunst- und Medienwissenschaften), course: Writing Africa, language: English, abstract: The present research paper aims to prove in a first step that the American Dream acts as a leitmotif throughout the entire novel, thus showing that it is ideally suited as an object of investigation, in order to explore and discuss in a further step whether Ifemelu's American Dream can ultimately be regarded as fulfilled or disappointed, including the emphasis on important literary topoi such as race, the question of women’s rights and social matters. Due to the paper’s given length and the particular subject chosen, the following analysis will mainly focus on Ifemelu and her experiences, as she actually leaves Nigeria for the U.S. and then comes back to her home country, thus representing the perfect research subject under the thesis of the American Dream, it’s reliving and consequences through her personae. As for Obinze, who experiences similar difficulties in the U.K., a comparison does present itself, but can only be the subject of another research paper.