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Simile
Explanation and Analysis—Grumbling Jewels:
Americanah describes Aunty Uju’s ritual of dissatisfaction with a simile in Chapter 17. During her visits to Warrington, Ifemelu often sits by as her aunt vents her frustrations:
Ifemelu stood by the window while Aunty Uju sat at the table drinking orange juice and airing her grievances like jewels. It had become a routine of Ifemelu’s visits: Aunty Uju collected all her dissatisfactions in a silk purse, nursing them, polishing them, and then on the Saturday of Ifemelu’s visit, while Bartholomew was out and Dike upstairs, she would spill them out on the table, and turn each one this way and that, to catch the light.
The simile creates a perverse impression as it likens the grumbling aunt to a jeweler. Both share the hyper-obsessed, meticulous care of artisans—only, rather than tending to worldly goods, Aunty Uju revels in her disappointments and misfortunes. What follows is a tragic picture that marks the ironic reversal of her life. Back in Nigeria, mistress Aunty Uju had lived with real jewels dangling about her neck. In America, the jaded Aunty Uju only grows wealthier in slights and grievances. Jewel by polished jewel, Americanah decks out the shiny treasures of American racism: guards stereotype her at the library, patients shrink when she enters, and her son becomes the butt of every school joke. Her trove dazzles, but only in its shocking injustices.
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