The Thing Around Your Neck (Adichie, 2009) is a collection of short stories written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that has received worldwide recognition and has been nominated for several awards such as the Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2010) and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (2010). In the short stories, Adichie explores how immigrants in America suffer when they arrive in the United States. Though the stories do not share the same plot or characters, they are woven together by their themes. Identity is one of the common themes Adichie touches on throughout the book. Immigrants have to immerse into a completely new culture when they leave their homeland and are left with one of two options, they can either choose to integrate into a new culture, or keep their identity and hold onto their culture. In ‘The New Husband’ (Adichie, 2009), Chinaz Okafor, who has gotten married to an Americanized Nigerian, has to choose between the two options. Their marriage has led to a loss of identity and individuality in language, tradition, values, beliefs, and food for Chinaza, which she cannot seem to accept. Moreover, ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ (Adichie, 2009) follows the story of a woman named Akunna who wins the American visa lottery and moves from Nigeria to Maine. Akunna, too, is faced with numerous complications and has a difficult adjustment to rural American life. Throughout the novel, Adichie forces the reader to question the dilemmas with which the characters are faced. Therefore, the stories ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ (Adichie, 2009) and ‘The New Husband’ (Adichie, 2009) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie characterize the problems Nigerians face about understanding the role of gender and cultural expression in their lives in the United States.
To begin with, in both stories Adichie criticises the Nigerians who devalue African culture and prioritise Western lifestyles and attitudes. The characters in her stories struggle to recognize what they should believe and what they indeed believe after moving to the United States. In ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ (Adichie, 2009) the narrator tells the way Akunna’s uncle has told her to behave, “The trick was to understand America, to know that America was give-and-take. You gave up a lot but you gained a lot, too.” (Adichie, 2009, p.198). After Akunna wins the American visa lottery, her family believes that her life in the United States will be thriving. However, she soon realises that being an immigrant is incredibly difficult. One of those difficulties is facing her abusive uncle, who tries to excuse his behaviour by writing it off as one of the adversities Akunna needs to face. Nonetheless, as Akunna moves on with her new American life, she realizes that she doesn’t gain much. The United States instead takes away her sense of cultural affiliation.
In The New Husband’ (Adichie, 2009) Adichie also suggests that if there is hope for the Nigerians, they must embrace their roots and respect their culture. They must take pride in their African roots and religious practices and should reject Western lifestyles. Chinaza’s husband Ofodile constantly interrupts her English while she is speaking to tell her the right American expressions, rather than accepting her just the way she is. He tries to avoid drawing attention to the difference in her language. On top of that, Ofodile takes away the biggest part of her identity, which is her name. He tells her, “You don’t understand how it works in this country. If you want to get anywhere you have to be as mainstream as possible. If not, you will be left by the roadside. You have to use your English name here.”, taking away the bit of identity Chinaz had left (Adichie, 2009, p. 172-173). In doing so, Chimamanda Adichie points out that those who migrate to America often compromise their (African) roots and lose themselves in the process, thus characterizing the problems Nigerians face about understanding cultural expression in their lives in the United States. They try to integrate into the white man’s society and lose an important piece of their identity.
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Furthermore, Adichie critiques the political and patriarchal system of Nigeria that devalues and exploits women. Many of the characters in the short-story collection have broken lives and endure broken relationships which aggravates their unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Women as migrants are particularly vulnerable. They are often suppressed by men, either Nigerian or American and struggle to survive. In The New Husband’ (Adichie, 2009), Chinaza tells her friend Nia what her aunt would say if she would hear their conversation of planning ways to escape, “You left your husband? Aunty Ada would shriek. Are you mad? Does one throw away a guinea fowl's egg? Do you know how many women would offer both eyes for a doctor in America? For any husband at all?” (Adichie, 2009, p. 178). This quote demonstrates the lack of power experienced by many women who struggle with their sense of dependence. Also, in The Thing Around Your Neck’ (Adichie, 2009), Akunna is expected to fulfill her uncle’s sexual desires because he is the one providing her food and shelter. She cannot return to Nigeria because America is considered 'the land of opportunity’ and she would be deemed selfish if she would leave it. Akunna is surrounded by family but is still alone. The silence makes her feel invisible, “Sometimes you felt invisible and tried to walk through your room wall into the hallway, and when you bumped into the wall, it left bruises on your arms.” (Adichie, 2009, p.119). She is a slave to her family, a slave to her uncle’s desires, a slave to her ambitions and dreams to become independent, which eventually forms ‘a thing around her neck’. After all, she leaves her uncle’s house refusing to compromise her dignity.
Besides that, Adichie explores the idea of women of colour being seen less than other women. When Akunna and her boyfriend are out to dinner in ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ (Adichie, 2009), the waiter assumes that an African woman couldn’t be the boy’s girlfriend (Adichie, 2009, p. 124). Akunna is upset by this assumption but her boyfriend doesn’t understand her, which makes the difference between a coloniser and a colonised in the story apparent. Chimamanda Adichie not only explores the continued negative perception of black women, but she also criticises it by portraying that white people don’t realise what they are doing.
In conclusion, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short stories ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ (Adichie, 2009) and ‘The New Husband’ (Adichie, 2009) address the complexities of race, gender, and cultural beliefs for African immigrants trying to integrate into the American community. In both stories, Adichie discusses the trials the protagonists face to be accepted. She has created characters such as Akunna and Chinaza to characterize the problems Nigerians face after moving to the United States. The two characters are completely different but have to deal with similar situations. In the two stories, Adichie criticises the Nigerians who devalue African culture and prioritise Western lifestyles and attitudes and makes her characters embrace their roots and respect their culture. She also critiques the political and patriarchal system of Nigeria in which women are devalued and exploited by creating protagonists that are suppressed by men, either American or Nigerian. Therefore, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ (Adichie, 2009) and ‘The New Husband’ (Adichie, 2009) are not only about Nigerian immigrants and their sufferings but also about women as occupied beings by the patriarchal society, which involves exposure to racism as well as sexism. Hence, these women are the double victims of a colonised country.
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