Have you ever been to a new country and felt small and difference than the rest? Have you ever felt like there was a sudden drop of unpredictability on your shoulders, fearing how the new country would change your life? In the story “The Thing Around Your Neck,” Nigerian Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells a story of an immigrant girl in that exact same situation. By winning the American visa lottery, Akunna is given the chance to move to America by herself to live with her uncle in Maine. However, after she is molested by him, she leaves to find a job that will not only to support herself but also her waiting family back home. Similar to many other immigrants of color, she experiences the typical things such as ignorance, cultural difference,
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For example, Akunna feels lonely and sad as she looks back at her previous life: “Sometimes you sat on the lumpy mattress of your twin bed and thought about home- your aunts who hawked dried fish and plantains, cajoling customers to buy and then shouting insults when they didn’t; your uncles who drank local gin and crammed their families and lives into single rooms; your friends who had come out to say goodbye before you left, to rejoice because you won the American visa lottery, to confess their envy” (Adichie 79-86). It is pretty evident that this long train of a thought doesn’t usually happen unless one really misses one's home. The use of second point of view enables the readers to imagine her family as their own and brings out a nostalgic feelings on the family members one truly misses. In addition, her everyday anxiety about her income and life goes as far as the point of depression: “Nobody knew where you were, because you told no one. 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 127-130). Because she comes back home from her low-paying job, filled with ignorant customers, it is justifiable that she is slowly crumbling inside and only trying to pick herself up. Again, the constant uses of “you” and “your” in the story builds a more intimate feeling and the reader is better able to fit into the shoes of Akunna. Overall, in the country so different and so far away, Akunna struggles to deals with the unpredictability of her life and tries everything in her power to support herself and her
For example, Akunna feels lonely and sad as she looks back at her previous life: “Sometimes you sat on the lumpy mattress of your twin bed and thought about home- your aunts who hawked dried fish and plantains, cajoling customers to buy and then shouting insults when they didn’t; your uncles who drank local gin and crammed their families and lives into single rooms; your friends who had come out to say goodbye before you left, to rejoice because you won the American visa lottery, to confess their envy” (Adichie 79-86). It is pretty evident that this long train of a thought doesn’t usually happen unless one really misses one's home. The use of second point of view enables the readers to imagine her family as their own and brings out a nostalgic feelings on the family members one truly misses. In addition, her everyday anxiety about her income and life goes as far as the point of depression: “Nobody knew where you were, because you told no one. 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 127-130). Because she comes back home from her low-paying job, filled with ignorant customers, it is justifiable that she is slowly crumbling inside and only trying to pick herself up. Again, the constant uses of “you” and “your” in the story builds a more intimate feeling and the reader is better able to fit into the shoes of Akunna. Overall, in the country so different and so far away, Akunna struggles to deals with the unpredictability of her life and tries everything in her power to support herself and her