Love
Love is at the center of Daughter in Exile. At the start of author Bisi Adjapon's novel, Lola is a twenty-year-old woman who is living a seemingly great life in Senegal. She has a nice job, is well-educated, has a wonderful home, and has a great social life. But she doesn't have one thing that she desires and desperately wants: love. That all changes when Lola meets a U.S. marine named Armand who is serving at the U.S. embassy in Senegal. The two create an unexpected relationship with each other and fall madly in love with each other. Lola, in turn, gives up everything in her life for love. She illegally immigrates to the United States to pursue her love and relationship with Armand, showing love's power.
Being an illegal immigrant
After Lola falls in love with Armand, she is given a choice: she could stay in her native Senegal and continue her life or move to the United States with Armand as an illegal immigrant. Once she makes her choice and arrives with Armand as an illegal immigrant, it becomes clear to her how hard her life will be. She is exploited and treated poorly because of her citizenship status; her time in America, as a result, isn't as good as she thought it would be. The American dream is attainable, but only for those who are citizens or legal residents, she discovers. Everyone else who enters America is discarded like trash.
The military
Early on in Daughter in Exile, Lola is introduced to an American marine named Armand. Armand is a soldier in the United States Navy who is tasked, along with many other soldiers, with protecting the United States embassy in Senegal. The U.S. military, and other militaries across the world, are powerful entities that enact the will of their governments. And the U.S. military certainly enacted the will of the United States government in the countries they fought.
