Lacan’s perspective on American Dream in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah

Abstract

American Dream is a fascinating idea that has set scores of pilgrims in search of a new world. In the contemporary world, the idea has continued to inspire generations of immigrants to America in search of greener pasture .This paper interrogates the idea of American Dream using Jacques Lacan’s concept of the imaginary order as a conceptual tool. It is the contention of this paper that American Dream is not something realisable. The experience of some of the characters who travelled to America in search of American Dream shows that there is nothing like American Dream, where the streets of New York are littered with dollars. Therefore, the study concludes that American Dream is a game which the imaginary order plays on human consciousness.

Keywords

• americanah
• american dream
• chimamanda ngozi adichie
• lacan’s imaginary order
• illusion