Abstract

The study focused on love and betrayal in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, the aim of the study is to appraise the context that lead to love and betrayal in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah to critically examine the relationship between love and betrayal among the antagonist/protagonist in the novel under study. The main problem identified in the study were discovered and other issues whose propelled the resemble to embark on this project were fully discovered under the statement of problem. Also discover under the scope and limitation of study as well as the objective of this research work. The study conclude that Americanah is about one thing, it does start to feel like that by the end of the book. The inevitableness of Ifemelu's return to Nigeria and Obinze ties up the novel too neatly, spinning the past events as solely the story of a transcontinental romance. In a book full of passion it is, ironically, the resolution of the romance that comes up lacking

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

The central plot tying Americanah together is the romantic relationship between Ifemelu and Obinze. They have a kind of idealized teenage love as they find each other in school and become incredibly close, but they are then separated when Ifemelu goes to America. Ifemelu cuts off contact with Obinze during her period of depression, and this silence goes on for years. During this time each character has their own romantic experiences: Ifemelu dates Curt and Blaine, while Obinze marries Kosi. Even while Obinze and Ifemelu are separated, their romantic lives remain the central plot focus, particularly as Ifemelu deals with racial and cultural issues in her romantic relationships. With this Adichie not only creates tension and an interesting plot, but also delivers social commentary through an individual and emotional lens.

Apart from this central relationship, Adichie examines other kinds of romantic relationships as well, like Kimberly’s idolization of her narcissistic husband Don, Aunty Uju becoming the devoted mistress of The General, and many of the women of Lagos dating and marrying for money alone. Most of the novel’s romantic relationships are portrayed as somehow unhealthy or lacking, and the contrast to this is the kind of pure, romantic love and connection between Ifemelu and Obinze. The novel ends without them reaching any definite conclusion, but it does at least end on a hopeful note, implying that Ifemelu and Obinze’s love might be able to rise above the world of materialistic, one-sided, or unhealthy relationships.

1.2 Statement of the problems

Many who have made Chimamanda’s work the subject of their study dwell on the sociological, historical, political, feminist, political, cultural and even material dimensions, not many, if there is any, have been done on the modernist aspect of these works especially Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. That is why in this present research, the researcher intends to fill this missing gap.

1.3 Research Questions

• What are the context that lead to the theme of love and betrayal in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah?
• To what extend is the relationship between love and betrayal among the antagonist/protagonist in the novel under study>
• To what extent do the novel portrays the features of betrayal and love writings?
  • Objectives of the study

The main objective of the study is on Love And Betrayal In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. The following are the specific objectives;

• To appraise the context that lead to love and betrayal in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah
• To critically examine the relationship between love and betrayal among the antagonist/protagonist in the novel under study
• To ascertain the extent to which the features of betrayal and love writings are manifested in the novel
  • Significance of the study

This study adds to the growing number study on love and betrayal . It aims at contributing to the understanding of betrayal in a relationship context .This study hopes that analysing literary works of African feminist fictional writers would help others to construct persuasive arguments on the same topic that help women to redefine themselves and take charge of their own destinies. In addition, this would  also assist men to understand that it is normal for women to have autonomous power to realise their dreams.

The study will equally add to the existing body of knowledge on the subject matter. Students undergoing research work similar to the present study who may wish to use this work as a reference material or a spring board for their own work will find this work really useful.

• Scope of the study

There are many women fictional writers in Africa, who have written on love and relationship, but this study is limited one selected novels, which are set in Africa. Only fiction written in English is considered, as fictional works written in other languages fall out of the scope of this study. The novel selected  for analysis is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah

1.7       Methodology

Creswell (1994) defines the research methodology as the system of collecting data for a research project. Therefore, this section presents the methodology that has been used to conduct this research.

Qualitative method was the central point of this study. A qualitative study design is defined as “an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problems, based on building a complex, or holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of respondants or informants, and or contacted in a natural setting” (Cresswell, 1994, p. 2). This was a desktop study where already published sources were used. Fahnestock and Secor (1990, p. 77) indicate that qualitative is “rather deductive, since we will begin with some assumptions about argument as widely held as possible, which we then test against a body of evidence as representative as we could make it, on the way to some conclusions, as tentative as they must be”. The qualitative research design is concerned with the understanding, experience and interpretation of the social world. It is both flexible and sensitive to the social context in which data are produced (Masson, 2002, p. 3). The qualitative method is used to organise and stimulate the meaning of the content in the novels and draw conclusions from them. This method is also good in gaining in-depth understanding and providing descriptions of how characters bring forth the feminist arguments in connection with rhetoric. According to Mlambo (2013), qualitative methods are also effective in identifying intangible factors whose role in the research issue may not be easily apparent. Therefore, since a qualitative method was used in this study, there has not been any fieldwork, but rather a literary analysis of imaginative short fiction

1.9 Definition of Key Terms

An antagonist in literature is usually a character or a group of characters that oppose the story’s main character, who is known as the protagonist.

Betrayal: is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations.

Feminism: The movement or ideology that believes in the equality of gender and seeks to provide equal opportunity for both male and female without bias or prejudice.

Fiction writing is the composition of non-factual prose texts. Fictional writing often is produced as a story meant to entertain or convey an author's point of view. Different types of authors practice fictional writing, including novelists, playwrights, short story writers, radio dramatists and screenwriters.