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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Huckleberry Finn:
Americanah alludes to Mark Twain’s 19th-century novel Huckleberry Finn in Chapter 5 during a literary dispute between Obinze and Ifemelu. Taken by Huckleberry Finn, Obinze lends a skeptical Ifemelu his copy and insists that the read it:
He gave her a copy of Huckleberry Finn, the pages creased from his thumbing, and she started reading it on the bus home but stopped after a few chapters. The next morning, she put it down on his desk with a decided thump. “Unreadable nonsense,” she said.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Heart of the Matter:
Americanah alludes to Graham Greene’s 20th-century novel The Heart of the Matter on multiple occasions. Perched on Emenike’s bookshelf and nostalgically re-read, it enters the story as a reading recommendation from Obinze’s mother. At the time, Obinze is not too impressed:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"Mummy, you’re just trying to force me to like this book.” He gestured to the book on the kitchen table, Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter. “My mother reads this book twice a year. I don’t know why,” he said to Ifemelu.
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Chapter 18
Explanation and Analysis—A Bend in the River:
In Chapter 18, Kelsey’s chattiness rubs Ifemelu in the wrong way. As the salon’s newcomer rattles off allusions to famous literary works about Africa, she provokes Ifemelu’s criticism
Unlock with LitCharts A+“I’ve just read this great book, A Bend in the River. It made me truly understand how modern Africa works.” [...]
Ifemelu shifted. Kelsey’s knowing tone grated. Her headache was getting worse. She did not think the novel was about Africa at all. It was about Europe, or the longing for Europe, about the battered self-image of an Indian man born in Africa, who felt so wounded, so diminished, by not having been born European, a member of a race which he had elevated for their ability to create, that he turned his imagined personal insufficiencies into an impatient contempt for Africa.
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Chapter 27
Explanation and Analysis—David Blunkett:
Keeping close to its title, Americanah’s commentary of race relations does not often stray far from America. The novel’s allusions to David Blunkett—such as that in Chapter 27—offer only passing glimpses into the state of British politics, like the newspaper headlines that Obinze spots on the train:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He sat on the stained seat of the noisy train, opposite a woman reading the evening paper. Speak English at home, Blunkett tells immigrants. He imagined the article she was reading. There were so many of them now published in the newspapers, and they echoed the radio and television, even the chatter of some of the men in the warehouse.
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Chapter 36
Explanation and Analysis—Barack Obama:
Americanah turns former U.S. President Barack Obama into both allusion and motif as it chronicles the protagonist’s experience of America. The novel critiques, applauds, and even quotes him—in Chapter 36, a TV broadcast even captures his announcement of his candidacy:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Benny turned on the TV and they watched Barack Obama, a thin man in a black coat that looked a size too big, his demeanor slightly uncertain. As he spoke, puffs of cloudy steam left his mouth, like smoke, in the cold air. “And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States of America.”
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Chapter 38
Explanation and Analysis—Emmett Till:
In Chapter 38, when the police profile Mr. White and mistakenly arrest him for what they assume is a drug deal, Blaine’s reaction reminds Ifemelu of another historical tragedy:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Yes. He’s back at his desk.” Blaine paused. “I think he expects this sort of thing to happen.”
“That’s the actual tragedy,” Ifemelu said, and realized she was using Blaine’s own words; sometimes she heard in her voice the echo of his. The actual tragedy of Emmett Till, he had told her once, was not the murder of a black child for whistling at a white woman but that some black people thought: But why did you whistle?
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