Adichie

        I found Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele extremely interesting. One concept that appeared several times in the second half of the letter was the idea of change. I found this captivating, as it is impossible to fully look at the world we live in without focusing on change: both the change that has already occurred, and the change that must occur to move forward successfully. Adichie prominently discusses this idea for the first time during her tenth suggestion, as she describes how to address Chizalum’s appearance. Adichie states that if her future school prohibits Chizalum’s natural hair, her mother must fight for her. Adichie ends this idea, writing, “it takes one person to make change happen”(46). Adichie later recalls this notion of change when discussing the structure of proposals in our society. She states, “I truly wish for Chizalum a world in which either person can propose, in which a relationship has become so comfortable, so joy-filled, that whether or not to embark on marriage becomes a conversation, itself filled with joy”(58-9). Here, Adichie recognizes a change that she hopes will occur, but does not believe that she will see in her lifetime. Instead, she chooses to hold hope that future generations will be able to institute this change. While Adichie goes on to discuss this idea several times throughout the rest of her letter, the notion is the same each time; without the starting action of one person, it is impossible for anything to ever change.

In light of our recent conversations in class, I began to think about the relationship between the ideas of change and time. In the context of this text, time is viewed as a human life. Thus, human life is finite; it has a beginning point and an ending point. Likewise, there is what comes before a human's life and what remains after. Once a person’s time has ended, the things that they changed during their lifetime are the only things that will go on to impact those who come after them. Without time, there is no way that change can occur. Thus, because of its lasting nature, change is both dependent and nonexistent without time. If time were not acknowledged, there would be no way to perceive the way that things have changed with each passing generation.

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