Toxic deception as motivated by race/culture in Americanah

 

Across the novel Americanah, many characters choose to lie, be inauthentic, or otherwise withhold the truth. At almost every turn, this kind of deception always turns out to have negative consequences – yet they are always chosen in the face of a significant moral quandary. The importance of these moral quandaries is amplified by the impact of racial tension in the US and Europe, and when not amplified, only exist because of it.

Starting with simple lies, when Aunty Uju doesn’t tell Dike about his father, the General, it becomes one of the leading factors that Dike eventually tries to commit suicide. Aunty Uju justifies her decision, saying that she “didn’t want him to start behaving like [African-American] people and thinking that everything that happens to him is because he’s black,” but Ifemelu points out that the suicide attempt occurred because, while Dike has to deal with racism for being black, he still doesn’t have an identity which helps him make sense of it: “You told him what he wasn’t but you didn’t tell him what he was,” (470). Because Dike doesn’t know who his father was, or why his father isn’t with him and his mother in America, he possesses no cultural safety net.

When Obinze lives in England, in order to get a job and stay, he has to get a fake ID, and tries to pull of a green card marriage. He does this so that he can get away from Nigeria and function in white-Western society, but when both of these “lies” don’t pan out, he’s forced to return home, and he determines that neither lie was worth the loss of living honestly and the hardship it took to pull either off. So strongly is this hammered down, that it’s what motivates Obinze to leave Kosi: “I always knew that something was missing… I’ve been pretending all these months and one day she’ll be old enough to know I’m pretending. I moved out of the house today,” (588).

Both Aunty Uju and Obinze both have to deal with the results of racism/cultural alienation, and their initial solution of deception is met with disastrous results. The significance of pointing out the racial role, however, is that they are problems that white natives of their countries don’t have to deal with.

Unconditional Love in Winter's Bone

Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone is a surprising tale of love, humanity, and familial ties in the midst of extreme hardship. As Ree Dolly endeavors to hold her family together in an impoverished Ozark valley, she searches for unconditional love to sustain herself. Despite the absence of love in traditional relationships and roles, Ree emphasizes the importance of the human need of support when she finds unconditional love through her relationship with Gail.

The concept of love in Winter's Bone is one fraught with issues and trauma. In the traditional, husband-and-wife relationships Ree observes, such as those between her mother and father and Gail and Floyd, issues of adultery, violence, absence, and resentment are at the forefront instead of unconditional support and partnership. These negative qualities and examples in Ree's life cause her to shun the concept of marriage and traditional love. Floyd remarks to Ree of his loveless marriage, "'You think you get it but you don't. I mean, you oughta try it your own self sometime. Get drunk one night and wind up married to somebody you don't hardly know'" (36). To Floyd and to this kind of life, Ree says "'No thanks'" (37); however, she fulfills the human need for support through her relationship with Gail. With no other significant figure to which they can turn for aid and care, the female friendship between Ree and Gail transcends traditional roles. They serve as emotional and even romantic partners to each other and are each other's sole confidants and consistent supports throughout the novel, something which allows them to cope with the hardships of each of their broken households. In a community severely lacking consistency and stability, Woodrell writes, "Gail and Ree had been tight since the second-grade field trip when they'd bumped heads" (31). While Ree remains a self-sufficient character in the novel, her moments of reprieve in the struggle to survive come when she listens to the voice of Gail, as Woodrell writes that her "feelings could stray from now and drift to so many spots of time in her senses when listening to that voice, the perfect slight lisp, the wet tone, that soothing hillfolk drawl" (82). With this unconditional love from Gail, Ree's basic human need for support is filled enough for her to embark on the journey to find her father and give unconditional support of her own as the caretaker for her brothers, proving that true love, in any form, can be enough to bear hardship.

Ree’s Role in Winter’s Bone

Ree, the sixteen year old protagonist in Winter’s Bone, bears more responsibility in her life than an average sixteen year old.  She is placed in a situation in which her mother is severely mentally ill and incapable of being a mother anymore.  Her father is missing and the family is at risk of losing everything if he does not appear in court.  She is forced to care for her two younger siblings, Harold and Sonny.  Ree fully embraces her role as the glue to her family as she does whatever it takes to make sure her loved ones are cared for.

Ree is not only in a critically important role caring for her mother and brothers, she also plays an important part in Gail’s life.  The two girls are transparently in love with one another and they show it in physical ways, as well as their caring gestures for each other.  The region of the Ozarks the novel is set in is in a part of the country where homosexuality is not recognized as legitimate or even real.  The girls do not seem to even understand their own sexuality, albeit the clear signs of a romantic love existing between Ree and Gail.

A clear barrier to a Ree and Gail’s relationship is the existence of a husband and child for Gail.  Floyd, the husband of Gail, is not genuinely in love with Gail but because he got her pregnant, he is forced to marry her.  He constantly lies to Gail and cheats on her with the woman he truly loves.  The two have a young baby named Ned, which causes the two of them to stay together even though both of them would be happier with other lovers.

Ree cares for Gail as if she was family.  She happily takes in Gail when Floyd kicks her out of the house and yet still does not show any anger when Gail goes back to Floyd.  Ree is the most pure and genuine character from the novel, however she is gritty and will do anything to provide the best life possible for herself and her family.  She displays her strength when she is forced to saw her own father’s hands off of his dead corpse in order to save her house and land.  Ree acts as the central holding piece to keep her family and Gail from completely dismantling.  Without Ree, this novel has a much bleaker ending and there is no doubt about it.