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The Thing Around Your Neck - Adichie - Coggle Diagram
The Thing Around Your Neck - Adichie
Authorial Context
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie = born in 1977 in Nigeria
She moved to the US at the age of 19
Explores ethnicity and what it means for Africans at home in Nigeria and those living in the US
A common theme is the challenges faced by first generation migrants
“Stories have been used to disposes and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower and to humanise” - Adichie
Arranged as a anthology of short stories
Each story is semi autobiographical
Uses different character names and altered experiences to tell the audience about her own experiences growing up in Nigeria and moving to the US
Most of the stories deal with Nigerian people who migrate to the US and the conflicts and surprises that need to be faced
Stories
Cell One
On Monday of Last Week
Imitation
A Private Experience
Ghosts
The Arrangers of Marriage
The American Embassy
Jumping Monkey Hill
Tomorrow is too Far
The Headstrong Historian
The Thing Around Your Neck
Cell One
From the point of view of the sister who talks about her brother Nambia's struggle with crime- mainly theft - and how after his arrest he is confined to his cell which he doesn't mind but after standing up for an old man that gets abused, he gets abused by cell mates as well.
Themes
Family
Discovery
Violence and Conflict
Quotes
"Hey! Madam, why did you waste your fair skin on a boy?"
'it was my brother Nnamabia who faked a break in and stole my mother's jewelry'
'It was senseless. It was so abnormal that it quickly became normal'
'they continues to moan about riffraff from town coming onto their sacred campus to steal'
Jumping Monkey Hill
Explores the idea of abuse of power and sexual abuse towards African women and people. Also explores the notion of what is African and who defines what African is. I
“About having the… it’s almost the audacity to tell a group of young impressionable writers from different countries in Africa what an African story was, what qualified as African” - Adichie
Themes
Power and Powerlessness
Identity and Belonging
Abuse of Power
Abuse of Women
Belonging and Alienation
Quotes
"This... attitude is why they could kill you and require you to carry passes.. [for you to] walk on your own land"
"Tourists [returned] home.. unaware that there were more black people than lizards in South Africa"
“ Edward is always looking at my body” ~ Ujunwa
“this may indeed be the year of 2000, but how African is it for a person to tell
her family that she is homosexual ”
The Thing Around Your Neck
Deals with the Nigerian experience migrating to America and the often unrealistic expectations people have about their new country and that there is a human tendency to assume that life will be so much better after migration
Themes
Displacement and Alienation
The African Diaspora
Identity and Belonging
Immigration and Adaption
Quotes
"At night, something would wrap itself around your neck... before you fell asleep"
"White people who like Africa too much [or] too little were the same - condescending"