In the book Americanah by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie, the narrator introduces us to a young intelligent Nigerian Igbo women who travels to America so she can further in on her education. However, despite her success on writing blogs about race, she is unhappy and wants to move back to her motherland, Nigeria. Being that this book is written as a 3^rd person narration, readers are able to get a sense of the way each character in differentiates themselves and how their characteristics contributes to the outcome of Ifemelu’s life. So in other words, readers can sum up the story by using the narrators point of view, being that this is an omniscient work of writing. The narrator is able to give us an insight of the mindset of each character. For an example, the main character Ifemelu sends Obinze an e-mail (her childhood love) notifying him that she will soon be returning to Nigeria. Knowing that he is now a married man with children, she calls him “Ceiling”. Ceiling is a nickname she had called Obinze when they were young and in love. In the book it states, “She began to call what they did together ceiling, their warm entanglements on his bed when his mother was out, wearing only underwear, touching and kissing and sucking, hips moving in simulation. I’m longing for ceiling, she once wrote on the back of his geography notebook, and for a long time afterwards he could not look at that notebook without a gathering frisson, a sense of secret excitement.” (pdf 20) This evidences that Ifemelu is still in love with Obinze. Her calling him ceiling was an obvious flirtatious behavior. However, the narrator also lets the readers know that Obinze is not over her as well… In the book it states, “He wrote and rewrote the e-mail, not mentioning his wife or using the first person plural, trying for a balance between earnest and funny. He did not want to alienate her. He wanted to make sure she would reply this time. He clicked Send and then minutes later checked to see if she had replied.” (pdf. 30) Now why should a married man with kids want to keep in touch with his former lover? Is this the starting point of an affair? Will Obinze leave his wife for Ifemelu? As of now questions remain unanswered and soon Ifemelu will come to realization that Obinze still loves her, causing a great amount of distress. This conflict can ruin his social life, ruin his children’s life and also ruin the life of his wife. Most importantly, Ifemelu would be hated from her society when everyone finds out she was his mistress.

As readers we are well aware of the other characters as well. Like Ifemelu’s mother for an example, she’s very religious because she varies from church to church, and doesn’t give up and does crazy things like going bald so she can be welcomed. Another example is Ifemelu’s father, who very much loves his wife, and as readers we know that because he is now embarrassed that he should have just called his boss “mommy” to keep his job. He suffers from depression and doesn’t even talk anymore. Another example is Obinze’s wife, who greats Obinze’s peers with much respect, and goes to things like “how to keep your husband” church. This gives readers an insight that she very much loves him and does not want to lose him as a husband. And lastly, I could say Ifemelu’s aunt who was also a mistress. The narrator allows readers to know that Ifemelu’s aunt had shared similar experience and most likely Ifemelu will reach out to her with what she needs to do.