In her novel, Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the civic through the unique perspective of Ifemelu, a Nigerian immigrant to America who experiences unprecedented social inequality upon her arrival. As she struggles to immerse herself into the foreign society, the narrator is isolated and detached from her new community due to her race and her socioeconomic status as an immigrant. In such a way, Ifemelu also finds it more difficult to engage in the civic of the society to which she is rejected. For instance, as she observes a crowd outside a Princeton station, she notices a white, American man eating an ice cream cone. As she studies him, the narrator expresses her disappointment because the man’s behavior symbolizes the American public’s devotion to trivial matters (represented by the ice cream cone) rather than more meaningful topics of conversation. Furthermore, when the man speaks, he chooses to discuss the timeliness of the bus’s arrival rather than engaging in the civic. Through an effective ethos and pathos argument, Adichie gains the trust of her readers and illustrates the reality that when the American public is provided with a perfect forum for debate, they choose to reject able members of the community based upon physical appearances. For these reasons, Ifemelu reaches out to a global audience through an anonymous blog in order to communicate and relate to others with similar experiences and hardships.
In her blog, the narrator addresses the roles, statuses, and relationships of American blacks from her perspective as a Non-American black. Not only does she contribute a thought provoking viewpoint and bring to light social concerns in the United States, the narrator is also able to provide an environment in which people like her can engage in the civic despite the shortcomings within their own societies. As she provides an avenue for global communication and interaction in which individuals can share, debate, and invent ideas, Adichie also highlights the near-impossible difficulties African immigrants experience when attempting to engage in the civic in American society.