Courage vs. Selfishness in Adichie's "The American Embassy" by Hyatt Hammad (Blog 4)

Hyatt Hammad      Blog 4

Many people put their lives on the line during times of war, not just soldiers but journalists and activists as well. Though these non-soldiers may be brave for self-sacrificing for the good of others, they are also putting the lives of their families and friends at risk. This phenomenon is portrayed in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “The American Embassy,” which tells the story of a Nigerian woman waiting in line for an American Asylum Visa after her journalist husband has fled the country and after her son was murdered in retaliation for what her husband had written. A man waiting in line with her finds the acts of journalists like her husband to be heroic and noble: ‘“Those two editors, they are the kind of people Nigeria needs. They risk their lives to tell us the truth…If only we had more people with that kind of courage’”(Adichie 135). The woman however does not find the work of these journalists to be brave: “It was not courage, it was simply an exaggerated selfishness” (Adichie 136). The woman blames herself and her husband for what happened to their son. So while her husband may have exposed some of the atrocities committed by the Nigerian government to Nigerians and others around the world, he did not take the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of his family. The fact that he fled the country and didn’t make arrangements for his wife and child to live elsewhere and hide until they were able to rejoin him reveals that the husband was more concerned with his own safety than with his family’s, supporting the wife’s idea that he acted more out of selfishness than courage. I believe there are various motivations for mud-raking journalism, or journalism that aims to expose hidden problems to the world, including a desire of justice, glory, or adventure; however, no matter what the motivation, journalists and activists should be ready to face the consequences of their actions and be able to protect their own families before they try and take on the injustice of the world.