Themes

Identity

An important theme of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “The Arrangers of Marriage” is that of identity. Both the loss of identity and the wish to preserve it are important aspects of this theme.

When it comes to loss of identity, we can look at Ofodile’s character who adopts an American lifestyle in order to fit in. Some examples include him eating American food, judging immigrants for not acting American enough, or speaking only American English. He also changes his name to Dave Bell, which reflects a complete rejection of his former identity and his attempt to adopt a new, American one.

Ofodile also forces Chinaza to go through the same change of identity, not allowing her to use Igbo words and demanding to speak English even inside the house. ...