...importance, both in Africa and in the United States; her stories and novels also detail the hardships endured by first-generation immigrants. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, treats themes of family, religion, politics and tolerance. Her second book, Half of a Yellow Sun, takes place before and during the Biafran war and deals with questions of gender, race and class. Her work has won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. It has been translated into thirty-one languages. Adichie writes, “I just write. I have to write. I like to say that I didn’t choose writing, writing chose me. This may sound slightly mythical, but I sometimes feel as if my writing is something bigger than I am.” In “The Thing Around Your Neck,” the title piece of Adichie’s short story collection published in 2009, a young woman emigrates from Nigeria to the United States, where she confronts ethnic and class stereotypes (others’ and her own) and struggles to find room for both her family/cultural ties and the new relationships and...
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...1 Transcending the limitations of diaspora as a category of cultural identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck Dr Elizabeth Jackson University of the West Indies St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago Having begun my academic career, not so long ago, as a postcolonial scholar, I have become increasingly critical of postcolonial theory on the grounds that for an increasing number of literary texts by so-called postcolonial writers, postcolonial theoretical approaches may have outlived their usefulness. One example is the Nigerian-born writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s collection of short stories The Thing Around Your Neck, published in 2009. My paper will examine the ways in which these stories explore the limits of diaspora as a category of cultural identity and move toward a more flexible conceptualization of the impact of globalization on people’s sense of themselves and their place in the world. Although the main characters in these stories are of Nigerian origin, few of them fit easily into the limiting categories of ‘Nigerian’ or ‘Nigerian diaspora’. This is not only because their geographical placement is often in flux, but also because their sense of identity is not based on nationality, national origin, or even a sense of belonging to a Nigerian diaspora. On the contrary, they can arguably be described as ‘cosmopolitan’ – not in the old elitist sense of the term, but in the sense of transcending the limitations of nationality or...
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...Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Thing around your Neck Essay: Analysis and acknowledgement The main theme in the text ”The Thing around your Neck” must be that outstanding culture clash a lot of hope full immigrants in America are exposed to. Just from the very beginning we experience that the main character Akunna from Nigeria has very high thoughts of going to America. Her family is also very convinced that it is going to be a huge thing for her, they are expecting her to send them presents and they tell her; “In a month, you will have a big car. Soon, a big house. But don’t buy a gun like those Americans” (p. 57 l. 3-4) And this trip she won did turn into a huge thing, - but it resulted in an acknowledgement of not belonging to America and a home journey. The first thing Akunna realizes when she arrives at her uncle’s house is that black and white people do not have the same rights, because they for instance not aloud to use the same hairdresser. The uncle also tells that; “The trick was to understand America, to know that America was give -and- tak. You gave up a lot but you gained a lot too” (p. 58 l. 14-16) You have to put up a lot to obtain something, - maybe even less than you gave up. The uncle, who explains this, is a black man, so it shows that he has just accepted the conditions and the way it is. The inequality between blacks and whites is deep-rooted and universally accepted. When the uncle starts to abuse Akunna we learn that she is a strong person, -...
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...The main theme in the text ”The Thing around your Neck” must be that outstanding culture clash a lot of hope full immigrants in America are exposed to. Just from the very beginning we experience that the main character Akunna from Nigeria has very high thoughts of going to America. Her family is also very convinced that it is going to be a huge thing for her, they are expecting her to send them presents and they tell her; “In a month, you will have a big car. Soon, a big house. But don’t buy a gun like those Americans” (p. 57 l. 3-4) And this trip she won did turn into a huge thing, - but it resulted in an acknowledgement of not belonging to America and a home journey. The first thing Akunna realizes when she arrives at her uncle’s house is that black and white people do not have the same rights, because they for instance not aloud to use the same hairdresser. The uncle also tells that; “The trick was to understand America, to know that America was give -and- tak. You gave up a lot but you gained a lot too” (p. 58 l. 14-16) You have to put up a lot to obtain something, - maybe even less than you gave up. The uncle, who explains this, is a black man, so it shows that he has just accepted the conditions and the way it is. The inequality between blacks and whites is deep-rooted and universally accepted. When the uncle starts to abuse Akunna we learn that she is a strong person, - she gives up everything an leaves. The fact that Akunna has to work for less money than the other...
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...The women show courage and intelligence even though they are culturally suppressed. Discuss. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie highlights the often challenging lives of Nigerian women living in Africa, but also abroad in the United States. It is however, not the difficulties which Adichie is ultimately focusing on, but the courage and intelligence of women who are able to make ‘small victories’, overcoming various attempts of cultural oppression. Adichie’s characters are subject to cultural suppression in several of the short stories. This is most pronounced in ‘The Arrangers of Marriage’ where Chinaza is forced by her husband to assimilate to her new surroundings by ridding herself of all signs of being Nigerian, as ‘to get anywhere you have to be as mainstream as possible’. This included giving up her native dress, language and food in order to fit into American culture. Furthermore, Dave’s request that she change her name, is perhaps the most significant sacrifice, as she became Agatha Bell, while ironically, her neighbor, Nia, had taken on an African name. This essentially makes her disappear in much the same way as Akunna in ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’. Akunna is striped of her Nigerian family through winning the ‘Visa Lottery’ and is then forced from her ‘uncles’ home due to his inappropriate actions. This lands her at the ‘last stop of the Greyhound bus’ in Connecticut and working in a café. The patrons regularly mistake her for Jamaica, as she...
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...“The Thing Around Your Neck,” in which a young Nigerian’s woman’s “uncle,” a relative by marriage, sympathizes with her about her Maine community college classmates’ “mixture of ignorance and arrogance” before exhibiting some arrogance of his own. The narrator, one of the least privileged of Adichie’s headstrong young women, strikes out for Connecticut and lonesomeness. She barely supports herself working in a restaurant whose customers respond to her accent and appearance by recounting their love of elephants. When she meets a white American who has actually visited African countries, and who knows enough to toss around tribal names and engage in non-safari conversation, the narrator thinks: “You wanted to feel disdain…because white people who liked Africa too much and those who liked it too little were the same—condescending.” The story’s cross-cultural romance yields moments of affirmation and challenge, including a bravura conversation in which the heroine debunks her lover’s use of the phrase “real Indians.” Race provides the surface tension in this story, but in the end it is the characters’ class and family attitudes that create the story’s deepest conflict. Anger. Defensiveness. The feeling of being unloved, unwanted, undesired. Above all, the nagging sensation that your story - your truth - is being stifled by flashier, louder tales. “The Thing Around Your Neck,’’ pointedly, is not relegated to an impersonal, unspecific other; it’s closing ever tighter around your...
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...Virginia Quarterly Review) in which two women caught up in a riot between Christians and Muslims take refuge in an abandoned shop. "Ghosts" (first published in Zoetrope: All-Story) in which a retired university professor looks back on his life. "On Monday of Last Week" (first published in Granta 98: The Deep End) in which Kamara, a Nigerian woman who has joined her husband in America takes a job as a nanny to an upper-class family and becomes obsessed with the mother. "Jumping Monkey Hill" (first published in Granta 95: Loved Ones) is the most autobiographical story,[3] it is set in Cape Town at a writers retreat where authors from all over Africa gather, and tells of the conflicts experienced by the young Nigerian narrator. "The Thing Around Your Neck" (first published in Prospect 99) a woman named Akunna gains a sought after American visa and goes to live with her uncle; but he molests her and she ends up working as a waitress in Connecticut. "The American Embassy" (first published in PRISM international) in which a woman applies for asylum but ends up walking away, unwilling to describe her son's murder for the sake of a visa. "The Shivering", set on the campus of Princeton University it concerns a Catholic Nigerian woman whose boyfriend has left her, finding solace in the earnest prayers of a stranger who knocks at her door. "The Arrangers of Marriage" (first published as "New Husband" in Iowa Review) in which a newly married wife...
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...An African-American Dream You may know the term, The American Dream. However, your definition of that term is most likely different from mine. For some the dream is to achieve a higher living standard and for others the dream is to be famous. The American Dream also varies depending on which country you are from. Furthermore, the dream can reach unrealistic heights and end in disappointment. In the following paper, I am going to see how the American dream, immigration and race are interpreted in the story “The Thing around your Neck”. I will also look at symbolic meanings and the 2nd person narrator. In the short story “The Thing around your Neck”, the young woman Akunna from Nigeria wins the American visa lottery. She travels to the United States to live with her aunt and uncle, but when the uncle tries to abuse her, she leaves their house. She finds an apartment and a job as a waitress. A young man in the restaurant quickly finds her interesting, and Akunna says yes to go on a date with him, after he has persistently tried to ask her out. They are in a relationship until she gets a letter, informing her that her father is dead. She travels back to Nigeria without her boyfriend even though he offers to travel back with her. America is the land of opportunities, but are these opportunities for everybody? At first Akunna’s family have many expectations to America and thinks that people living in the country gets a big car, house and a gun. Therefore, the country is from...
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...The American Dream America, the earth of the opportunities, how many times have we heard these words? And the most important, are they true? Nowadays, in spite of all the harrowing histories of people that go in search of a dream and return sheared, thousands people's abandon their homes and their homeland to get the, so mentioned, American dream. With regard to the reality of the North American dream, recently I read a history in this respect, call: "The Thing around the Neck" for Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the history narrated how a Nigerian girl, who had won the American visa lottery, perceives the North American society, after her plans were truncated by an abusive relative. In this essay I will discuss: The events narrated from my point of view, if it really worth to sacrifice the comfort of the home for an American dream or something similar, and as a conclusion the basic recommendations for those that, in spite of the warnings, decide to move to another country. According to the history, this Nigerian girl won the American visa lottery, she will live and to study in North America and as almost everybody, she believed, she had won the lottery. Then she realized that not everything was pink flowers and that the North American people were full with prejudices and preconceived ideas, about people with her appearance and geographical origin, or in other words, reticence about the Africans and the black ones. However, this girl found peace in her relative’s home, where everything...
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...EM: ywcaindy@sbcglobal.net www.ywcaindy.org Questions for “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Cell One 1. What were your thoughts on this first story about the spoiled boy, Nnamabia who stole from neighbors and his own family and always got himself out of whatever jam he was in? 2. Why do you think his family let him get away with such actions for so long? Could you tell they treated boys differently than girls? Do we have examples of such in our own lives. 3. What do you think about the subtle wording about how those that were stealing from around the campus grew up watching Sesame Street, reading Enid Blyton, eating cornflakes, attending school in polished brown sandals? Do you think she was subtly saying something about those actions? a. Educated and wealthy parents straying from their traditions and having the children be westernized in teaching and upbringing, yet maybe westernized upbringing doesn’t help the children as much as you think? b. These were the children that were spoiled. Riding their parents cars, seats pushed back, armed stretched out to reach the steering wheel. 4. Any similarities to the U.S. to the parents reaction to the stealing? a. Denial. b. Blaming riff raff in town when their own children were committing acts b/c of their lack of discipline. 5. Were you surprised with the concept of beauty being those closer to the white persuasion? a. Why did you waste your fair skin on a boy and leave the girl so dark? What is a boy doing...
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...VATE INSIDE STORIES 2014—MABO INSIDE STORIES MABO Film directed by Rachel Perkins Teaching notes prepared by Sarah Catton Edited by Marion White CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................3 WAYS INTO THE TEXT ..............................................................................................6 RUNNING SHEET AND STRUCTURE OF THE TEXT...............................................8 PERSPECTIVE ON THE TEXT.................................................................................13 CHARACTERS..........................................................................................................15 THEMES AND ISSUES.............................................................................................20 LANGUAGE AND STYLE..........................................................................................24 CLOSE ANALYSIS....................................................................................................28 FURTHER ACTIVITIES.............................................................................................31 KEY QUOTES ...........................................................................................................34 TEXT RESPONSE TOPICS ......................................................................................36 REFERENCES ........................
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...are thinking in your mind now – asylum seekers. I will start to discuss about this topic by asking you a question! Do you ever think that the Australian Government should change a way they process and treat the asylum seekers who arrive by boat? With my own opinion. I think they should do it! (change the slide) When we were born, no one could choice the destinies or what will happen to us in the future. All refugees exchanged their lives for the Death to escape the wars, escape the poverty and the desire to change their life in another heaven. But what did they get after all? Indifference from the Australian Government and others. (change the slide) Did you see this picture before? That child is Aylan Kurdi - 3-year-old came from the northern town of Kobani Syria, near the Turkish border where are the hot spots of war between IS and Kurdish. Aylan and his family including parents, his brother Galip - 5 years old got on two boats with other people to leave their homeland - Syria and seeking a new land, where is no war, no bombs or bullets. They wanted to come to Kos Island, Greece. But life was always unfair, their boats sank on its way from Syria, taking the lives of 12 people including Aylan, Galip, and their mother. Please look at the picture! He lies on the beach, hands down along the body, face down in the sand. Aylan looked like a little angel is sleeping. But this little angel will never wake up. Maybe when you are seeing this picture, deep in your heart might have...
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...The Thing Around Your Neck In C.N. Adichie’s anthology The “Thing Around Your Neck” is one of Adichie’s most powerful stories in her anthology, by Dr Jennifer Minter (English Works) The “thing around your neck” becomes a powerful symbol of the narrator’s feelings of anxiety in the new country. As Adichie points out, the story of migration is often one of exploitation (take advantage of someone) and impotence (powerlessness) for many Nigerian women. (They suffer also under the burden of stereotypes, both from the African and American perspectives.) In America, Akunna is lonely and desperate. She is exploited by her uncle and suffers from a sense of powerlessness. The new life in America: (leads to loneliness and desperation) : In “ The thing..” the narrator (Akunna) tries to build a new life in America but she endures a great deal of adversity and anxiety., She feels lonely, isolated, displaced and alienated . As Adichie suggests, this is a rather typical experience of Nigerians in America. She also feels anxious because she cannot adequately support her relatives in Nigeria as they would expect. Symbol: The ‘think around your neck” becomes a symbol of anxiety. Akunna is gripped by fear. She feels utterly powerless. She feels that she lacks control. p. 119 “At night, something would wrap itself around your neck, something that very nearly choked you before you fell asleep.” p. 125 “the thing that wrapped itself around your neck, that nearly choked you...
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...ENG12D: The characters in these stories long for their lives to be transformed. Discuss. Long: hope, desire, crave, wish, yearn Transformed: changed, altered, new, varied, reconstruct, modified, shifted…? Some people have the choice to transform their lives: TTAYN: does she stay or go at the end? Inevitability TAOM: Her choice would have been to go to university but her fate was to be married off and sent to America Even if lives are transformed, they aren’t always what they were longing for/unmet expectation THH: Nwamgba wants her son to be educated so that he can reclaim what is rightfully theirs but instead Anikwenwa ends up relinquishing and rejecting the culture, etc. TAOM: The promise of the American Dream goes unfulfilled and then she is obligated to stay (so as to not disappoint, etc) Some characters do not seek or want change but it happens anyway | Inevitability (no choice in whether change or life is transformed?) TAE: Ugonna’s mother’s life is changed through no choice of her own; walks out on the possibility of change (i.e. she leaves the embassy and sacrifices her chance to be safe from the violence) Ghosts: James Nwoye’s wife has died; one daughter is in America; however, he chooses to stay there – even though he is not paid his pension; he rejects the sterile nature of America. TITF: the family experiences The desire to transform one’s life is also evident through the secondary characters • Such as… TAOM ⇒ her family (want her to marry/arrange...
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