Birdsong

“She was thirty-two and tottering under the weight of her desire: to settle down. It was all she talked about. It was all our female co-workers talked about when we had lunch at the cafeteria.”

The narrator provides insight into the theme of Gender as Pageantry through her background on Chikwado. As a woman obsessed with the idea of marriage, Chikwado’s habits focus on fulfilling this societal demand. This passage exposes the pressure to marry that women like Chikwado and the narrator face.

“From the moment I met him, I had had the sensation of possibility, but for him the path was already closed, had indeed never been open; there was no room for things to sweep in and disrupt.”

This quote contributes to the story’s suspense. The narrator reflects on the promise of a deeper connection with him, although, in retrospect, this connection could never be more than her being his mistress. The difference in their perspectives here shows the power of Social Roles as Obstacles to Connection.

“He liked birds. Birds had always been just birds to me, but with him I became someone else: I became a person who liked birds.”

The narrator highlights her willingness to change her likes and dislikes to suit the needs of her lover. Bird courtship serves as a symbol of diminished agency as the narrator assumes a new identity (e.g., [becoming] a person who like[s] birds”) to connect with her lover.

“I was reminded of what Chikwado had said about my lover the first day that he came to our office: ‘His face is full of overseas.’ The woman, too, had a face full of overseas, the face of a person whose life was a blur of comforts.”

This quote illustrates the class distinction present in the narrator’s relationship. Overseas travel is a luxury available only to those who can afford it. Adichie subtly invokes the image of the Returnee—a person who leaves Nigeria and returns. Returnees, having a blend of multiple identities due to having lived in different countries, are part of the Afropolitan image implied in most of Adichie’s works. Although a foil to the narrator, Chikwado is very observant. She notices the nuances of cultural representation in Lagos social politics even though she appears to embrace the city’s strict social norms.

“I, too, slammed my hand on the cane table as I imitated him later, while my lover laughed. ‘That is the problem with these godless, demon-worshipping traditional rulers,’ my boss said.”

The narrator mimics her boss’s behavior at a work meeting about the Oba—a word that means “ruler” in Yoruba and Bini languages—who has been asking for a base to be built on his ancestral lands. The words her boss says to refer to the Oba invoke the legacy of colonial power in Nigeria. Nigeria used to be a colony of the British Empire from the 19th century to the 1960s. During colonization, white missionaries and settlers often referred to the Indigenous religious practices of the ethnic groups living in Nigeria as demonic. The narrator’s boss’s statements to the Oba parallel Nigeria’s colonial history, particularly how the indigenous populations were treated. This exchange evokes the tension between traditional versus modern ways of living—a common theme in African Literary Realism.

“‘Meat pies’ had made Chikwado and me laugh, even though our boss was not being funny. ‘Why not something more ordinary like bread?’”

Chikwado makes a distinction between the foreign and the familiar when she questions the boss’s language. Her distinction alludes to Britishness—the quality or “essence” of being British—that remains in Nigeria after Independence. Her question highlights class distinction since meat pies, in the context of the Oba, and her boss, would be treated as a peace offering.

“I never volunteered. I disliked those visits—villagers watching us with awed eyes, young men asking for free phone cards, even free phones—because it all made me feel helplessly powerful.”

The narrator reveals that she is at least familiar with the Oba because of past visitations to his land. To feel “helplessly powerful” indicates that power is freely given rather than earned. She does not like being in positions of authority where her actions could make or break another person’s life. This quote shows a critical difference between the narrator and her lover since the latter enjoys using his position to benefit others.

“When I got into the car, Emmanuel did not greet me. He simply stared straight ahead. It was the first time he had driven me without my lover. The silence was tense. Perhaps he was thinking that all his children were older than me.”

This quote illustrates the climax of the story. Emmanuel’s refusal to welcome the narrator outside of the presence of his employer is part of the theme of Sexism in Everyday Life, since the narrator’s marital status leads others to treat her like she is invisible.

“Perhaps whenever her car was hit a mechanic descended from the sky and made the dent disappear. The car in front of me had a gash on its tail-light; it looked like one of the many cars that dripped oil, turning the roads into a slick sheet when the rains came. My own car was full of wounds.”

This quote illustrates personification (“My car was full of wounds”) since cars cannot get sick or hurt. Personification is a literary technique that bestows human-like qualities to nonhuman objects and animals. Aside from personification, the quote shows the contrast between the woman—her car miraculously unscarred by the bustle of Lagos traffic—and the others around her.

“Ah, ah, stupid man! Of course he was shouting because he knew he was wrong—that is the Lagos way. So he thinks he can speak big English. Where did he even learn the word ‘nuisance’?”

After telling Chikwado about a traffic accident she had, Chikwado tells other female coworkers. These coworkers share in the narrator’s irritation at the taxi driver before moving on to something else. Here, language is revealed to be a social currency that others use to assert power.

“Am I invisible? I am the one who asked you a question. Why do all of you waiters and gatemen and drivers in this Lagos refuse to greet me? Do you not see me?”

The narrator shows frustration at a waiter who refuses to greet her. This quote is part of the narrative’s falling action. The narrator’s phrase, “this Lagos,” emphasizes the distance she has toward the city. It also shows distinction between how Lagos is versus how it ought to be, which is part of the theme of Sexism in Everyday Life.

“‘Rituals of distrust,’ I said. ‘That is how we relate to one another, through rituals of distrust. Do you know how carefully I watch the fuel gauge when I buy petrol just to make sure the attendant hasn’t tampered with it? We know the rules and we follow them, and we never make room for things we might not have imagined. We close the door too soon.’”

After her lover attempts to console her by revealing that he got her a new car, the narrator tells him of her first bus ride in Lagos. Her lover seems puzzled. The narrator then uses her memory of this first bus ride to explain the rituals of distrust, the habits people engage in without understanding why. Her statement that “We close the door too soon” references her lover, whom she describes as having a “path already closed” (Paragraph 5). This quote marks the narrator’s epiphany, where she realizes that her lover does not care for her as a person but only as a source of validation. This quote supports the theme of Gender as Pageantry since the narrator experiences her epiphany when she refuses to perform gender expectations for him.

“I laughed. I had not laughed in the three weeks since I had left work at lunchtime and driven to my lover’s house. I had packed all my clothes, my books, and my toiletries and gone back to my flat, consumed as I went by how relentlessly unpretty Lagos was, with houses sprouting up unplanned like weeds.”

This quote is part of the story’s falling action. The narrator, while in the present, notices a woman holding a helmet because she does not want to ruin her hair. She recalls her lover’s statement regarding the people of Lagos having a sense of “fatalism” (Paragraph 76) in how they conduct themselves. While thinking about a prior accident, the narrator laughs for the first time since the conclusion of her relationship. This laughter is a sign of her moving on from heartbreak.