With the onset of the transatlantic slave trade, many Africans were displaced to the Americas while some of their counterparts remained in Africa. During this process, many people had difficulty distinguishing their identity and discovering where they truly belonged. This was a problem with people understanding their place in society. Problems have arisen in African and American society and this is one of the main issues described in Yaa Gyasi's novel “Homegoing”. Throughout the novel, Gyasi uses different generations and the theme of identity, to describe different times and help readers understand the work. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The connection that exists between people of the same nation is often hindered by conflicting identities and different homes. In the novel, Quey, son of Effia and James, was one of the few half-caste children living in Cape Coast Castle, which he felt prevented him from claiming either of his identities, from his Ghanaian mother or his English father. Gyasi wrote: “Quey wanted to cry but that desire embarrassed him. He knew that he was one of the half-caste children of the Castle, and like the other half-caste children, he could not fully claim either half of himself, neither his father's whiteness nor his mother's darkness. Neither England nor the Gold Coast.” (Gyasi, p.25). Although he lived there comfortably with the British men, the castle's basement housed thousands of imprisoned African slaves. Similarly, his son “James questioned his Ghanaian identity when an Asante girl refused to shake his hand because she was part of the Fantes, who traded slaves with the English. It got to the point where James had to fake his own death to marry the woman he loves and make his own decisions." Although Quey and James were both associated with Africa, Ghana, and the Fantes, neither felt they could truly identify with these groups. This is a struggle that many Africans have experienced over the centuries, and still today, and that Gyasi demonstrates through the problems plaguing the extended family in his novel. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes these difficulties in her talk “The Danger of a Single Story,” in which she details her experience with the conflicting identities of being Nigerian and living in the United States. Like Quey and James, and every other character in the novel, Adichie is made up of many stories: these stories contribute to one's identity and, ultimately, define the places where a person feels most comfortable. However, people tend to accept a single story about a person because it is more convenient for them, which is one of the reasons why people make incorrect assumptions and judgments about African Americans. Despite all coming from the same place, Gyasi's characters face oppression from each other and from people who think they are superior because they share a single story about Africa. They are all human beings, yet there have been eight generations of human beings who have been treated less, whether they lived in Ghana or the United States, because of their conflicting identities. This continued for Marjorie and Marcus when they revisited Ghana together and felt like tourists in a place their family once called home. For those who belonged to American society, a big problem they faced was double consciousness: whether they were African or American. With these feelings, African Americans could not understand whether they were real Americans or whether they were Africans even if they had not seenAfrica. This was a big problem described in “Homegoing”. For example, even though Gyasi's character, H, is free, he still gets arrested for looking at a white woman too long (Gyasi, p.158). With African Americans getting arrested for such trivial things, African Americans are bound to question whether they are Americans or not. In other words, double consciousness “is also part of a more complex feeling of duality” (Pittman). This means that African Americans in the story did not feel like the parts of their identity worked together, rather they felt like they had two identities to work with, the African identity and the American identity. dealt with racism, which is a relevant issue occurring in America today. In Gyasi's novel, Sonny, a descendant of Esi, explains that there were riots in Harlem after the New York police needlessly shot and killed a fifteen-year-old boy. These riots were portrayed as black violence against the police, much like the media misrepresentation that exists today because the media has the power to influence public opinion and understanding of a situation. Sonny accurately stated that “in America the worst thing you could be as a black man… you were a dead man walking” (Gyasi, p.260), which ties into what Adichie explained about identity politics in America. Regardless of the interconnectivity between people who share a similar background, this abuse of power has made it difficult for African Americans to feel a sense of belonging when it comes to their identity because, as Adichie stated, the history of racism is not simple and continues to ignore the many stories of an oppressive history. Today we can see similar problems with violence against others. This began to form “Black Lives Matter,” a movement that has become increasingly popular, particularly after several incidents of police brutality involving African Americans began to permeate national news. The adversities that come with an African heritage are more complex than simple racism, and these difficulties continue in society, not just because of ignorance, but because of a system deeply rooted in identity-based oppression. Marjorie is the last descendant of Effia to be told her story, and she still faced hostility towards her identity even though she lived centuries after the abuse, imprisonment, and enslavement of her ancestors. The girls at her school made her feel like a stranger in her own home, not only because of the color of her skin and her accent, but also because of years and years of white men in power carrying out the same systematic racism. Marjorie's teacher explained to her that “it doesn't matter where you come from because white people run things. You are here now, and here black is black is black” and this feeling of foreignness followed her even when she visited Ghana, which further highlights the complexity of racial identity and belonging. Marjorie's poem at the end of the novel clarifies this identity struggle: she writes, “The waters seem different but they are the same. Our own. Sister skin. Who knew? Not me. Not you." This captures the feelings rooted in her family's history at the castle and for her slavery and for the lost sister from whom her ancestor, Effia, was separated. The theme of identity is shown in many novels and films. One novel where it is shown is in the book "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In English 102 we did a history presentation, and while there are many themes, I see identity as an important issue. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is the story of a man who is born old and ages backwards. The story