After reading four of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's short stories, I noticed one prevalent theme among each of the stories: the distinct cultural separation between Nigeria and America. Cell One, The Thing Around Your Neck, Tomorrow is Too Far, and Ghosts each compared life in America to life in Nigeria in different manners. In Cell One, the female narrator mentions how she and her family lived a much more privileged lifestyle than the majority of Nigerians, with their American videotapes and luxurious goods, living a lifestyle similar to those of Americans. In The Thing Around Your Neck, the female narrator discusses the difficulty she faced while transitioning between her impoverished Nigerian lifestyle to her opportune American life. In Tomorrow is Too Far, the female narrator, now living in America, looks back to her Nigerian lifestyle and the mistakes and heartaches attached with her home nation. In Ghosts, the male narrator reminisces over the times when he was less lonely and when he was living with his wife and daughter in America.

I think what struck me most was the misconception those from impoverished nations have of the U.S. As a first generation American and a first generation college student, I often wonder about the former lives of my parents. Both of my parents immigrated from Vietnam, leaving their indigent lifestyles in hopes of acquiring these "great opportunities." Unable to afford proper schooling, neither of my parents were given the chance to attain higher education. Thus, they, and the rest of my extended family, built their lives from scratch, working and struggling in effort to provide for the first American generation--for my brother, for my cousins, and for me--with opportunities they hadn't been offered.
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