NAVIGATING IDENTITY: POWER AND ETHNICITY IN THE “THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK”

Jess Quiko

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche has become a foundational author in African American literature. Her experiences and search for identity has become a voice for many others who have migrated from Africa and even other places to the States. Her story “The Thing Around Your Neck” speaks of the many experiences others had, where people struggled to find happiness in a place where that is promised. One of the first lines of the story was, “After you won the American visa lottery, your uncles and aunts and cousins told you, in a month you will have a big car.” The belief that it is the land of opportunity and hope, instead of the struggles that Akunna had went through. This came along with her search for identity and cultural dynamics between white and black communities. Her relationship with her than boyfriend was a question if it was a genuine liking or an obsession he had for Nigerian Igbo culture. In “The Thing Around Your Neck” we can analyze it through an ethnic studies lens where there is a search of cultural identity, societal expectations, and power dynamics in a contemporary globalized America.

The search of cultural identity has become a prevalent issue in immigrants residing in their new places. One of Akunna’s first acts of assimilation was the change of her name. Many people were not able to pronounce it or snickered at her name, and in response, her uncle said it was a “mixture of ignorance and arrogance.’’ Instead, she changed it to Nancy, her choice to anglicizing her name was a struggle because there was a tension of preserving her Igbo culture and adapting to her new environment. Is there a worth in keeping a name that everyone was ignorant about? Or is the way to preserve her culture, is to shelter it and remember it as it was? This was the continued struggles that Akunna had faced. The article “The Newly Black Americans: by Luis Chude-Sokei addresses the new and evolving identities of Blacks in America. Chude-Sokei explains that new immigrants coming from Africa face new oncoming challenges in terms of racial dynamics, including prejudice and discrimination with black and non-black communities. It analyzes that the presence of new Black immigrants breaking traditional narratives of black identity and challenges within the African American community.“What confronts Africans in America is certainly racism but also the expectation that they share a collective response to it,” (The Newly Black Americans pg. 64). This “collective response” has become an expectation living in America, something that most Black Americans must live with and evolve into. This showed how Akunna was nothesitant to changing her name, this expectation has already become prevalent and one of her first challenges in cultural identity, losing a little bit of it.

Another example of her struggles in this is cultural isolation. In the beginning, there was hope when Akunna first arrived at her uncle’s place. She felt at home speaking the language and his wife calling her “nwanne, sister” and eating food from home. But with her leaving that behind because of the uncle, she felt isolated and felt that she could not tell anyone about what happened to her. Her relationship with her uncle can also correlate with how the Igbo culture is built with a patriarchal structure. In the article “DEFINING DIASPORA IN THE WORDS OF WOMEN WRITERS…” by Connor Ryan he explains that various stories of Adichie, there were instances where women did not have a right to many cultural values, like family names, and thus did not have the power to do certain things. “The question of patronymic access draws a suggestive comparison between the place of (grand)daughters…this story complicates the idea that patriarchy makes the home, community and even a nation of exile for women,” (Defining Diaspora in the Words of Women’s Writers pg. 1231). Having these experiences can challenge the fact of one’s own identity. In globalized America, this patriarchy may not be as obvious as the one in Igbo culture, this can drive her away from her own beliefs.

Another internal conflict that Akunna faced was the societal expectations that were placed. A lot of the time, minority groups face these expectations that stem from prejudice and stereotypes. The first expectation was from her own family. Now that she had won the ticket to America, there is the expectation that she must be successful and help her family back in Nigeria. After the incident with her uncle, she was alone and was not at all in America for the reasons she was originally there for. This was a rough period in her life because she did not write to her family. She wanted to tell that America is great and everyone was so “open” but instead “everyone in America was not rich and did not have fancy cars.” This expectation from her family has driven her away from them and can lead her back to her isolation. This loneliness made her feel “invisible.” She felt unseen and at night she felt something come up at her and choke her, thus the title “The Thing Around Your Neck.”

Her new expectation now was like a lot of other immigrants, to become the hardworking immigrant class. A quote that stood out to me was when the manager of the restaurant realized, “I never had a Nigerian employee, but all immigrants work hard. He knew he’d been there. He paid you a dollar less…” There was a social expectation to work hard because all immigrants work hard; it is part of the American dream that is fabricated to those who move here for better opportunities. Many stereotypes usually feed into these standards and more than likely become an expectation from the receiver. Even the manager, who was also an immigrant understood this and had the same expectation. It goes back to the quote, “… the expectation that they share a collective response” (Newly Black Americans pg. 64). Again, the collective response is that all immigrants are hard workers, the only irony is that they do not get paid more. This was another thing that Akunna must conform to, despite not being paid the proper amount. Another way she lost a piece of herself.

Another prevalent issue that Akunna faced was the power dynamics in the story. The most obvious one was her role as an immigrant, as mentioned briefly before there was a societal expectation that she must conform too. Working hard for less pay. There was also the fact that she was dating a white man. The judgment she got was on different sides of the spectrum and from both white and black communities. “The old white women who muttered and glared at him, the black men who shook their heads at you, the black women whose eyes bemoaned your lack of self-esteem. Or the black women who smiled swift secret solidarity smiles, the black men who tried too hard to forgive you, saying a too obvious hi to him, the white women who said, what a good-looking pair, too loudly, as if to prove their own tolerance to themselves.” As an interracial couple, they received a lot of judgement. From both communities they received both negative and patronized feedback. The people that believed that she lost her dignity because of dating a white man had judged her and pitied her. The ones that were “accepting” and wanted to show their “tolerance” overcompensated and patronized her. Both parties had no actual support for her and she felt no support from any communities. Driving away into isolation again. Not to mention her interpersonal relationship with her boyfriend. He patronized her too. He was attracted to her in a way that one admires a souvenir, because he knows and studied about the Igbo culture, he thought he understood her. That was more prevalent later when he asked if she knew the play Lion King, because her name rhymed with one of the songs. It was an admiration of her culture and her background rather than herself in general. I think Akunna broke out this mold when her father passed, she realized that although her boyfriend admires her, it was mostly because of her culture.

Adiche does a wonderful job in the story to making Akunna still rise from her struggles. article, “The Headstrong Historian,” by Susan VanZanten it compares Adiche works to the works of Chinua Achebe’s and it highlights their subtle differences. It mentioned while Achebe, showed more of the patriarchal side of the Igbo culture, Adiche has a different approach. “The women are strong and active, playing important roles in political, economic, and religious roles in Igbo culture” (The Headstrong Historian pg. 92). This takes on women shows that they have the ability to rise out of the patriarchal ways without tainting their culture. Akunna could have stayed with her boyfriend and have him take care of her, but she understood that America is not always the land of opportunity, and understood she needed to go back home by herself.

Through the portrayal of Akunna’s character, her story showed the common issues that immigrants go through, specifically ones from Africa. It showed how contemporary America is always changing and these experiences may be different now because of various times, but overall, the issues searching cultural identity is still a main one. We have shown such as Fresh Off the Boat, or artists like Mitski who share experiences on never really finding out what their culture is. To be separated one’s original culture to be put in place where it can be made fun of, is a difficult situation. Adichie portrays her experiences profoundly that it has become a foundational part of American history. The search for cultural identity is the base of finding your place in life, the societal expectations and the power dynamics that are involved.