Real Food Adichie Analysis

Learning to accept yourself is more important than making people accept you. In “Real Food,” the author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, writes about a little girl who would never eat her family's food, garri. Her family often mocks her because she's unlike them. The characters main problem in the story is her mother. In addition, the mother always tells her to eat the garri or hunger will be the death of her. The little girl doesn’t listen and continues to not eat the garri. Later, she explains that garri always scratches her throat. Her mother may be her main problem, but her brothers contribute to this too. They rollick around and ask the little girl, in a joking manner, if a certain food scratches her throat. Throughout the story, this nine-year-old girl learns to accept herself and her culture in a series of events. The girl first learns she is absolutely
The girl finds her true self by knowing what is important to her, her family. Her family is the cause of her troubles, but is what she loves the most. She directly states, “I wish I ate garri. It’s important to the people I love.” (Paragraph 7) This quote demonstrates her love for her family and her culture. It also testifies that she will eat garri if she could because her family does. The most important thing to the young girl is knowing what her family loves and how she loves them for it. Finally, the girl accepts that she is a foreigner to her family. The now thirteen-year-old girl learns to accept that her family it more accepting of her food choices. “‘Why are you not eating food?’ she asked in Igbo. I said I did not eat swallow. She smiled and said to my mother,’Oh, you know she is not like us local people. She is foreign.’” This quote provides proves that her family accepts she is not like them. If her family accepts who she is as an authentical Igbo, Nigerian, African girl, then she is able to accept herself as