Adichie's Arrangers of Marriage is about a Nigerian orphan who is married off to a doctor in New York of Nigerian descent. Through the story, Adichie explores the shortcomings of arranged marriage - when a bride and groom are matched because they are deemed suitable by their families. She also explores the cultural shock that stems from diasporic experiences.
One of the common themes across Adichie's stories about diaspora is the unfamiliarity that accompanies immigration. In this circumstance, the unfamiliarity manifests itself not only in Chinaza's physical surroundings as in LL1-3 (My new husband carried the suitcase out of the taxi and led the way into the brownstone, up a flight of brooding stairs, down an airless hallway with frayed carpeting, and stopped at a door. The number 2B, unevenly fashioned from yellowish metal, was plastered on it.), but also within her husband, who she continues to discover. This experience of going to a new place with new people is likely mentally exhausting, which is why Chinaza searches frantically for something 'known', which she finds in the biscuits. This cultural shock is exacerbated by her Americanah husband, who continuously rejects his Nigerian identity and pressures Chinaza to do the same.
The story possessed Adichie's brilliant writing style and may thus be considered at par with the rest of her stories. However, I found the core idea of this text rather underwhelming, so this entry will primarily discuss and evaluate Adichie's view of arranged marriage. From the outset of the story LL1-3, the negative connotation of words such as 'brooding', 'airless' and 'frayed' establishes the protagonist's view of America, and by extension her Americanah husband. This fits well with the understanding of arranged marriages as a whole, as portrayed by most popular literature. It's reasonable to assume that if one is told to become acquainted with and marry someone whom that person has never met before, then that marriage is doomed to fail. It lacks that mushy, romanticised notion of love that is the foundation of any lasting relationship. This is the stereotype surrounding arranged marriage, especially in the West, and it is to a large extent untrue.
The fact is that the familial support system that chooses one's partner does not just disappear once the marriage is 'accomplished'. Throughout a couple's marriage, it remains an important support system that plays a crucial role, be it in the resolution of intra-marital issues or in the rearing of children. This may also be a primary supporting factor for why divorce rates in love marriages tend to be higher than divorce rates in arranged marriage. However, a statistic does not speak to the happiness of those in wedlock, and on this point, perhaps Adichie is justified in depicting Chinaza as unhappy. Such an abstraction as happiness is nearly impossible to measure, and thus it's futile to try and build an argument upon anecdotes.
Adichie twists Chinaza's circumstances in conjunction with this archetype. Not only does she make the character parentless, she also gives her 'new husband' the following characteristics:
Poor at sex
Embarrassed about his Nigerian identity and psuedo-American, generally insecure
Cheap
In dire straits, financially
Condescending
Previously married, without telling Chinaza
Philandering?
With that most impressive resume, it almost seems as if the marriage wasn't doomed to fail by Chinaza's uncle and aunt, but by Adichie herself. Perhaps, Adichie understood that these circumstances were extreme and not the norm; perhaps the purpose of the story was to reflect more on America and diasporic experiences and less on the qualities of an arranged marriage. Regardless, however, through lines such as '"Plenty of time" was two weeks', Adichie does further augment the wholly negative image of arranged marriages. Coming from Adichie, whose other stories - such as 'A Private Experience' - toil to break stereotypes, this is specifically disappointing. Maybe this isn't the most harmful of stereotypes, especially since it is partially true and since marriages such as these do exist: it's unfair, though, for Adichie - as an author who is familiar with the reality in arranged marriages - to write about them in such a half-baked manner.