“I can tell her, sir?
Do you want me, sir… you want me to--”
“You can answer her questions.”
“You mean I can tell her everything, sir?”
“Of course you can tell her everything. Where do you take me to that you can’t talk about? Who do you see me with?”
“That is what I told her, sir. I told her I only take you to office buildings in midtown and downtown and sometimes-”
“Never mention Chelsea.”
“I have never mentioned Chelsea, sir. I will never.”
After Cindy Edwards, suspicious that Clark is cheating on her, asks Jende to write down Clark’s movements in a journal, he goes to Clark to ask him whether he should lie. Knowing that Clark is meeting with sex worker(s) during visits to the Chelsea Hotel, he wants confirmation from Clark that he should hide this from Cindy. In this moment he defends a man instead of doing the right thing creating a moment of shared masculinity between them. Similarly, he picks Clark over Cindy, for Clark is the one who hired him, and he has signed a confidentiality agreement- therefore he must always choose Clark, even though either of them could get him fired.
“You think I don’t want to remain in America, too? You think I came to America so that I can leave? I work as a servant to people, driving them all over, the whole day, sometimes the whole week, answering yes sir, yes madam, bowing down even to a little child. For what, Neni? What pride are you talking about?I lower myself more than many men would ever lower themselves. What do you think I do it for? For you, for me. Because I want to stay in America! But if America says they don’t want us in their country, you think I’m going to keep on begging them for the rest of my life? You think I’m going to sleep in a church? Never. Not for one day. You can go and sleep on the church floor all you want. The day you get tired, you can come and meet me and the children in Limbe. Nonsense!
In the midst over an argument with Neni about the likelihood of remaining in America with Jende’s immigration issues, Jende explodes. For years his dream was coming to America, but now that he has arrived, it seems like America doesn’t want him. Working as a servant for the Edwards’ has been demeaning as he struggles to navigate their casual racism and the cruel situations they put him in. Similarly, Jende is likely subjected to racism as he goes through New York City. Even though it seems like America is starting to deal with its history of racism (through its 2008 election of President Barack Obama), little seems to be changing in Jende’s life. Surviving in America is grueling work, and if they are doomed to fail, Jende doesn’t think there’s any point in fighting any more- if America doesn’t want him then he’ll go.
“She gave her pots and cooking utensils to Betty, her dinnerware and silverware to Fatou. Winston and Maami took her spices and the food in the pantry: the garri, palm oil, crayfish, fufu, egusi, pounded yams, and smoked fish. Olu came for her old textbooks and the desktop-a nephew of her husband’s would soon be arriving from Nigeria to study nursing at Hunger.”
Left with the woman’s duty of packing up the home, Neni metaphorically packs up parts of her life in New York City to bring back to Limbe, while preparing to leave other parts behind. Focusing on the items in the kitchen, Mbue highlights Neni’s new role as a housewife. Slowly coming to terms with the role Jende has forced her into as she methodically lists who she has given objects too, Neni realizes that her dreams of pharmacology school are over. As she gives away her old textbooks, she ends her formal education, as Jende does not wish it to continue.
