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"The face of a person who did not understand her, who probably didn't cook with palm oil, or know that Palm oil
when fresh, is a bright bright red and when not fresh, a congealed orange lump
There were the blind beggars led by children, singing blessings in English, Yoruba, pidgun, Igbo, Hausa
She wanted to scold him about playing with the palm oil in the kitchen. 129
Maybe the red splash really was palm oil 133
She did not look, because she knew the blood would be red like fresh palm oil
Through cultural referential themes and concepts, Adichie shows that people can
cover up the emotions that have been affected by alien occurrences. With the
grounded, concrete objects relating to their culture, the character affected by
emotional distress may have an easier time dealing with grief. The protagonist
character in The American Embassy is afflicted with grief after her son is killed
by government soldiers. She tries her hardest to keep in touch with the real
world while her mind is in absolute turmoil, shown by the disjointed time
travelling of the plot narrative. One of the things keeping her mind in check is
the firm belief that her son is not dead and covered in blood, but in fact dirtied
with palm oil after knocking the bottle from a shelf he could not have possibly
reached. The palm oil is a recurring theme in The American Embassy, as a
cultural reference that lets the protagonists retain her sanity to make it through
the Visa qualification test. The protagonist is confronted with the interviewer
who probably didn't cook with palm oil, or know that Palm oil when fresh, is a
bright, bright red. This cultural divide really accentuates the fact that the
protagonists identity is much more different than the interviewer with the pale
face, the face [that] did not understand her. Adichie lets her unnamed mother
protagonist deal with the denial in a first person limited viewpoint, letting the
reader in on her clouded mind, letting them experience the mothers sorrow and
cover up firsthand. This also allows the reader access to an intimate portion of
her mind, one that stays unknown to the other characters in the sort story. This
also lets the reader in on the cultural aspects of the denial of the death of her
son. The constant references to the palm oil that she mistakenly believes that
her son is covered in show the cultural familiarity she has to surround her mind
with to maintain composure. This proves another instance of the culture
impacting upon the identity, forming a strong, unbreakable relationship.