Checking Out

Obinze’s character embodies a central theme of the story: The Complexities of the Immigrant Experience. The tone of the first paragraph, describing Obinze’s first perceptions of London, establishes his feelings as an unauthorized immigrant. Ominous imagery depicts the cold weather as possessing a “weightless menace,” while the buildings “all [wear] a mournful face” (Paragraph 1). Here, Adichie’s use of personification presents the city as an unwelcoming character. Obinze’s physical discomfort is accompanied by a profound sense of alienation in a hostile country. This inhospitable imagery culminates in Obinze’s discovery of a pile of feces on a toilet lid. Obinze recognizes the offensive discovery as “a performance,” possibly left there by a disgruntled employee. However, Obinze feels that the “carefully arranged” feces is also a deliberate affront to him, symbolizing the United Kingdom’s attitude toward immigrants. The protagonist is aware of the public perception of “asylum seekers draining the National Health Service” and feels scrutinized and judged (Paragraph 98). Throughout the story, his anxiety and hypervigilance are emphasized. For example, the protagonist’s panic is depicted on his first trip to the registration office when he overhears a woman complaining about “sham marriages.” The incident foreshadows his later arrest on his wedding day.

Adichie’s use of exposition provides insight into Obinze’s motivations for leaving Nigeria and becoming an unauthorized immigrant. His idealization of America and Western culture as a child is underlined through the story’s title and its connection to a TV campaign. As a boy, Obinze saw “Andrew Checking Out” as enacting his own fantasy of “checking out” of Nigeria and going to America for a better life (Paragraph 40). However, the text underscores the irony of Obinze’s misunderstanding of an infomercial designed to dissuade Nigerians from leaving their country. The concept of “checking out” suggests the careless abandonment of one’s nation and cultural heritage. At the same time, the story’s exposition illustrates the troubled political and economic history of Nigeria through references to General Buhari’s violent military regime and the strikes of university lecturers. In providing this background, Adichie illustrates the complex factors that influence emigration.

Introducing the theme of Power and Social Status, the narrative emphasizes Obinze’s lack of social status once he becomes an undocumented citizen. His powerlessness is underlined when he meets the Angolans. Adichie conveys the hierarchy within the immigrant population when the Angolan men treat Obinze with “a slight condescension,” knowing that his fate “[is] in their hands” (Paragraph 3). Although once in Obinze’s position themselves, the men exploit and profit from other immigrants. This theme is continued in Obinze’s later encounters with fellow Nigerian Vincent Obi. Vincent takes advantage of Obinze’s vulnerable position, demanding an extortionate percentage of his earnings in return for his National Insurance number. The dynamic between Obinze and Vincent demonstrates a social class reversal. While Obinze comes from a relatively privileged background in Nigeria, he recognizes that Vincent does not. Obinze imagines Vincent’s “community secondary school full of barefoot children; a polytechnic paid for with the help of a number of uncles; a family of many children; and a crowd of dependents” (Paragraph 61). However, in the United Kingdom, Obinze’s and Vincent’s social statuses are inverted, and Vincent enjoys the power he wields over “a university staff child who grew up eating butter and now need[s] his help” (Paragraph 61).

In its exploration of the complexities of the immigrant experience, the story highlights the tension between cultural assimilation and the preservation of one's cultural identity. Vincent is an example of a Nigerian who has gained British citizenship and adapted to the country’s culture. Yet his vacillation between an “affected […] British accent” and “Nigerian English” symbolizes a linguistic loss of identity (Paragraph 61). Adichie suggests that assimilation also inevitably involves compromising one’s moral principles. As the story’s antagonist, Victor ultimately gets Obinze deported, but Obinze also resorts to behavior that conflicts with his values in an attempt to stay in the United Kingdom. His decision to contact the good-natured character Iloba sits uneasily with him, as he ordinarily would not seek out his company. Obinze also betrays Roy Snell’s kindness and his coworkers’ trust in him when he lies to them.

“Checking Out” demonstrates how, for the immigrant characters, assimilation involves the obscuring or erasing of one’s identity. For example, Obinze recognizes that the Ghanaian cleaner snubs him because he is “too close to what she [is],” whereas “with the Polish woman she was free to reinvent herself” (Paragraph 49). Obinze also reinvents himself when he takes on the identity of Vincent. Throughout the story, the motif of names represents the shades of identity the protagonist must navigate in an attempt to assimilate. When Iloba addresses him as “the Zed,” he refers to Obinze’s Nigerian nickname. However, Obinze acquires the second nickname of “Vinny Boy” while working at the warehouse. The nickname “Vinny Boy” is a radical departure from Obinze’s Nigerian roots and involves a further mutation of his identity. Yet this alternative identity grants him community and acceptance. Nevertheless, Obinze realizes that he does not fit into British culture completely, as he is considered “African posh” by his working-class coworkers. The complex and confusing nuances of the British class system are outlined by his colleague’s response to one of their customers. While Obinze perceives the customer as unkempt, patronizing, and mean (he does not offer them a tip), Nigel describes the man as a “real gent” due to his accent (Paragraph 90). The protagonist notes these cultural differences with curiosity without real hope of understanding them.

By the end of the narrative, Obinze is forced to acknowledge his true identity when he is arrested. Paradoxically, by doing so, he becomes dehumanized in the eyes of the police and immigration authorities. The protagonist is recharacterized as “[a] thing to be removed” as he goes through the process of deportation (Paragraph 136). Obinze’s name and identity become meaningless, indistinguishable from the many other undocumented immigrants deported from the UK.