A NEW HISTORICIST LOOK AT “THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK”

Ashley Renteria

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian diasporic writer who uses her experiences as an immigrant woman of color to highlight the difficulty immigrants can face when trying to assimilate into American culture while also maintaining their sense of self and the cultures of their homes. This is shown in her short story, “The Thing Around Your Neck,” where the main character, Akunna, receives an American visa, moves to the United States to make a life for herself, and finds herself struggling with cultural ambivalence. New historicism helps readers analyze a piece of work by showing that the themes in literature cannot be taken from the text alone and are not universal to all readers. Instead, under this lens, literature derives its potentially dual meaning from either the author’s or the reader’s diverse cultural situations or time periods. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Thing Around Your Neck” can be analyzed through a new historicist lens to reveal how the clash between Nigerian and American cultures exposes the challenges immigrants face in navigating their identities and societal expectations.

For almost three years (July 6, 1967–January 15, 1970), the Nigerian Civil War wreaked havoc on the people of both Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra. The war began when Biafra declared independence from Nigeria in 1967 because the Igbo ethnic group felt they could no longer peacefully cohabitate with the Muslim group, Hausa-Fulanis, of northern Nigeria. Within the first year of the war, the Nigerian government had surrounded Biafra and imposed a blockade on Biafrans. This led to the mass starvation of its citizens. Tragically, throughout this war, there were approximately 100,000 military casualties, and between 500,000 and two million Biafran civilians died of starvation (“Ice Case Studies”).

The Nigerian Civil War cost the Igbos many lives and a lot of money, and they took quite a hit on their infrastructure. Igbos who had fled for their lives returned home after the war to find that their jobs and homes had been taken from them. The government allowed these actions under the guise of “abandonment,” further isolating the Igbos and fueling feelings of injustice. Further stifling the Igbo people, the Nigerian currency was changed, and after the war, those who had identified as Biafran were given N£20, regardless of how much money they had in the bank at the time.

The aftermath of this civil war has affected the generations to follow. Adichie, being a second-generation descendant of the Nigeria-Biafra War, has noted that this historical event has had quite an impact on her life, even though “she was born seven years after it ended and did not experience any material deprivations” from it (Satkunananthan, 187). She has made sure to include these effects in her works, including “The Thing Around Your Neck.” Akunna’s story is one of resilience. She comes from a poverty-stricken background, and when allowed a better life, she promises to send tokens of her good fortune back to her family. When America did not provide her with the life she had hoped for, she still sent half of her earnings home to her family to help them. Akunna’s experiences are typical for immigrants and would have been encountered by Adichie’s family or even Adichie herself as she navigated through her life as an immigrant in America, which would have affected her writing.

In this short story, Adichie has added an effect of verisimilitude by creating characters that simulate real life. Her characters struggle with poverty, no doubt due to the lingering effects of the civil war, and dream of a better life in America, but are warned not to own a gun like “those Americans” (Adichie). Cultural hegemony is prevalent in that all Akunna’s family members’ requests are for irrelevant items such as handbags, shoes, etc. (Zubair, 1112). Akunna shows her own culture’s influence when she gets upset at her boyfriend for giving her useless gifts. She explains that in her country, gifts need to have a purpose, to which her boyfriend laughs. Alternatively, some characters show how their privileged lives have had the opposite effect on their livelihoods. Akunna’s boyfriend shows how different his thought processes are and shows his privilege by giving “useless” gifts or turning down the vacation at the summer cottage. The conflicts arise in their relationship because Akunna has been raised to work hard for everything she has and has barely scraped by in doing so, while her boyfriend has been handed everything in his life, dismissing any question because “he had a trust fund.” These differences are not something that love alone can remedy and lead to the demise of the relationship.

There are many examples of how roles such as gender, race, and class may have affected the writing of this short story. The most notable of the roles would be race. Akunna notices the looks she gets from varying people around her regarding her relationship. From white women to white men to black women or black men, each group reacts differently to the idea of a bi-racial relationship. This is indicative of real life, as there is a long history of turmoil over the idea of someone dating outside their race. Gender plays a strong role in this story. Adichie is known for her powerful thoughts on feminism and how, in the Igbo culture, women are typically oppressed by males (Mohammad, 97). If Akunna had been a man, the probability of being molested by her uncle would have been minimal, and she would have gotten a different job than her server position, which would have meant not meeting her boyfriend where she did. The differences in class between Akunna and her boyfriend were glaring. If Akunna had been of a higher class, she would have had different connections and may have been able to stay in school, never finding herself working for a lower wage than her coworkers at a restaurant. If Akunna’s boyfriend had been of a lower class, they may have been able to find some common ground on which to base their relationship, allowing for a longer time together.

Even though “The Thing Around Your Neck” was published in 2009, it remains relevant in today’s contemporary world. The reader can relate to the story’s themes of family, culture, connection, and the idealized American Dream, as they still pertain to most people. Thanks to the current economic situation, the idealized American Dream is one that everyone in America struggles with, not just immigrants. Human yearning for connection is a timeless task, especially for those who find themselves far from home. Family, whether having positive or negative impacts on our lives, will always be relatable. Differing cultures, which play a large aspect in this story, remain one of the largest points of contention among humans today.

The experiences of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the culture surrounding her are prevalent from beginning to end in this story. Her Nigerian main character struggles with immigration and immersion into American society while still trying to maintain her sense of identity. She holds fast to her beliefs, even when contradicted by her significant other. Through this new historicist reading, one can look at “The Thing Around Your Neck” in a new light. New historicism allows the reader to consider the author’s culture and time period. This opens the story up to a deeper level of understanding and gives the reader a more profound look at the characters. This story’s meaning has stayed true over time because, regardless of the time that has passed, humanity will always strive to find peace between our past and our future.

Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Thing Around Your Neck.” Prospect Magazine – Britain’s Leading Monthly Current Affairs Magazine, www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/books-and-literature/fiction/59001/the-thing-around-your-neck. Accessed 7 May 2024.

“Ice Case Studies.” Case Study, web.archive.org/web/20170214103207/www1.american.edu/ted/ice/biafra.htm. Accessed 7 May 2024.

Mohammad, Sabri, and Noor Abu Madi. “Raising a New Generation of ‘Feminists’: Gender and Social Norms in Chimamanda Adichie’s Imitations and The Arrangers of Marriage.” Language in India, vol. 21, no. 12, Dec. 2021, pp. 94–103. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=154333921&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Satkunananthan, Anita Harris. “Haunts and Specters in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Biafran (Re)Visitations.” 3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, vol. 24, no. 4, Oct. 2018, pp. 185–98. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.17576/3L-2018-2404-14.

Zubair, Hassan Bin, et al. “White Oppression Oppresses the Black Identity: Exploring Cultural Incongruity and Issues of Nigerian Diaspora in American Landscape Presented in Chimamanda Ngozi Adhichi’s Selected Fiction.” Ilkogretim Online, vol. 20, no. 2, Mar. 2021, pp. 1112–18. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.17051/ilkonline.2021.02.126.