Checking out
Checking out (2013) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The story is narrated entirely in the third person. Obinze, the Nigerian protagonist, lives in London after entering the United Kingdom on a six-month visa. After two years in the country, his visa has expired, making him an unauthorized immigrant. Although he finds London cold and unwelcoming, he longs for the benefits of legal citizenship. Obinze meets two Angolans who offer to arrange a marriage for him to gain citizenship. He gives the men a deposit of £200 and agrees to pay £2,000 later. The Angolans claim that they will not profit from the arrangement, as they must pay the woman Obinze will marry. A few days later, Obinze meets Cleotilde, his future wife.
Quotes
[edit]- dewy and fresh” appearance
- (Paragraph 11).
- There were difficulties in her life that he wanted to know more about, parts of her thick, shapely body that he longed to touch, but he was wary of complicating things. He would wait until after their wedding, until the business side of their relationship was finished
- Removed. The word made Obinze feel inanimate. A thing to be removed. A thing without breath and mind. A thing.
- Sometimes he would stop outside a tube station, often by a flower or a newspaper vender, and watch the people brushing past. They walked so quickly, as if they had an important destination, a purpose to their lives. His eyes would follow them, with a lost longing, and he would think, You can work, you are legal, you are visible, and you don’t even know how fortunate you are.
- wistfully, like an admiring foreigner”
- (Paragraph 27)
- averse to foreign young men”
- (Paragraph 42)
- a real gent”
- (Paragraph 90)
- weightless menace,” while the buildings “all [wear] a mournful face”
- (Paragraph 1).
- asylum seekers draining the National Health Service” and feels scrutinized and judged
- (Paragraph 98)
- They walked so quickly, as if they had an important destination, a purpose to their lives. His eyes would follow them, with a lost longing, and he would think, You can work, you are legal, you are visible, and you don’t even know how fortunate you are.”
- (Paragraph 1)
- I’ve never been to Africa. I’d love to go.’ She said ‘Africa’ wistfully, like an admiring foreigner, loading the word with exotic excitement. Her black Angolan father had left her white Portuguese mother when she was three, she told him, and she had not seen him since, nor had she ever been to Angola. She said this with a shrug and a cynical raise of her eyebrows, as though it had never bothered her, an effort so out of character, so jarring, that it showed him just how deeply it did bother her.”
- (Paragraph 27)
- He wanted to kiss her, her upper lip pinker and shinier with lip gloss than the lower, to hold her, to tell her how deeply, irrepressibly grateful he was. She would never flaunt her power over him.”
- (Paragraph 29)