Dicuss the tension between family beliefs and impact of school and school culture?

One of the central conflicts that drives the plot of the novel is the one that exists between Obi and Niru, with the basis of this conflict being the difference between the way these characters view America and Nigeria.

As a man who came of age in Nigeria, Obi considers himself Nigerian and Nigeria to be home. He insists that his family return there regularly, expects to be buried there upon his death, and has frozen his own father's home in time so that it remains the same upon each return. Obi's insistence that Nigeria is home is out of step with the reality of his situation. By the time of the narrative in the novel, Obi has been living in the United States for decades, perhaps longer than he lived in Nigeria. For Obi, however, the United States can never be home, not for himself or for his sons. In Obi's mind, America is associated with lax morals, and he blames American culture for Niru being gay, which Obi imagines as a betrayal of Nigerian masculinity.

While OJ, Obi's eldest, seems to maintain some connections to his father's country of origin by learning to speak Igbo and talking with the older men in the village when he returns to Nigeria, Niru is unable to embrace this approach to his father's homeland. Niru, who does not speak the language, actively rejects the idea of Nigeria as home. His life is in America and he actively argues with his father about this issue. Obi's insistence on taking Niru back to Nigeria against his will further solidifies Niru's association of Nigeria with the pressure to conform to his father's ideas about who he should be. In place of a Nigerian identity, Niru embraces aspects of the culture of the affluent people with whom he goes to school and engages in some ways with rap music, a product of African American culture.

Obi is unable to accept that the consequence of raising his sons in America is that they will be Nigerian-American rather than Nigerian. His refusal to accept this fact causes the fracture in his relationship with Niru and helps to set off, to some degree, the series of missteps that lead to Niru's death.