The Thing Around Your Neck

The next theme found in this legend is the theme of courage. Courage is having a state of mind in which a person is able to face struggles with confidence, and without fear. After being left in the cold winter, the women must be very strong and courageous in order to survive. For example, Sa' announces, "'They think that we are too old and useless. They forget that we, too, have earned the right to live! So I say if we are going to die, my friend, let us die trying, not sitting'"(16). This quote demonstrates the theme of courage because it shows that the two old women are determined to live and survive, and they will not take pity on themselves. Instead, they choose to prove The People wrong, and will "die trying, not sitting". Another example of courage found in Two Old Women is when Ch'idzigyaak and Sa' build each other up in times of loneliness and fear, the first point in the story when the two main characters really connect to each other. For example, the text states, "Though food was scarce, warmth was their main concern, and at night they would sit and talk, trying to keep each other from the loneliness and fears that threatened to overcome them...They talked. And a sense of mutual respect developed as each

Why are culture collisions so hurtful? Nwoye’s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of Western ideas into the Ibo culture. Nwoye started out in the novel as lazy boy, but the cultural collision of the British colonists and Ibo people affected Nwoye to the point of him abandoning his birth culture and to run away to be a missionary. The reasons for Nwoye’s change in their sense of identity included Nwoye’s struggle with identity leads him to embrace the new culture, which ultimately saves him, and illustrates the positive effects colonialism can have on individuals.Ultimately his reaction to the western ideas shaped the work as a whole because of what he did influenced many other people to do many different things.

The fluidity of each story results in an easy-to-understand message that even the blind and the bigoted would be able to understand, which, what I believe was Adichie’s exact goal all along. These single stories present in Americanah are immensely crucial in the sense of revealing those who choose to deny the blatant racism that remains eminently prominent in our society, educating those who unknowingly overlook it, or bringing to attention the stories people in America experience every day in their lives without

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe describes the customs of the Igbo culture while telling the life story of a man named Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a man who dedicates his life towards being one of the clan’s elites. However, even though he is driven by this goal, he tends to do things which the clan does not accept. Through his actions, and the clan’s response, readers are able to see the pros and cons of the Igbo culture, and the differences between our moral ideologies. One issue presented in the book is the depiction of women. In the Igbo culture, women are shown as weak and inferior, however the author’s intention can be misleading. Although he is demeaning the value of women, he is showing readers how we as humans often contradict ourselves when trying to live by the rules society impedes on following.

Imagine living in dramatic fear, someone who loves you, puts you through abuse, depression, and demolishing your self-esteem. How does a person grow from such a traumatic experience and become brave? Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born on September 15, 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria. During her senior year at Eastern, she started working on her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, which was released in October 2003. Adichie demonstrates bravery and growth in humanity. Kambili and her family’s lives are followed throughout Purple Hibiscus. Kambili and her family live through fear of Papa, they are silent and are afraid to stand up for themselves. Fear suppresses our individuality and confidence- thus; it controls humanity and hinders us from bravery and growth.

In “Jumping Monkey Hill”, Ujunwa turns her frustration with racial and sexual oppression against the single story Edward attempted to create,

In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story, The Thing Around Your Neck, shifts in intimate and subtle diction reveal the personal realizations of a young Nigerian girl in America as she faces adversity in isolation and personal loss, and ultimately indicates that the answer to the her desolation does not lie in the arms of a man. Told in the second person, the story is a heartbreaking depiction of loneliness. The usage of “you” makes the reader become the victim of the event that is being narrated to create a personal connection with the character and the reader. She says, “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

Throughout the entire novel she analyzes things like ‘the American dream’ and what it means to be black in America. The story of Ifemelu is not a hard story to imagine, and Adichie was able to use a relatable character to really examine the perceptions and expectations that so many immigrants face, and how it can change people in the long run- like Aunty Uju. Due to this novel popularity and success, the controversial topics within have been discussed and debated by university scholars, students, and book lovers alike. Progress can be made by those who take a step out of their own perceptions, and what they were raised to believe. Once this is done, real conversations can take place which includes all life views despite race, gender, sexual preferences,

Adichie was born in 1977, seven years after the end of the war. Her knowledge of Biafra is inherited rather than lived. Yet, from the very beginning of her career, Biafra plays an integral role in her writing. Before the publication of Half of a Yellow Sun, Adichie’s novel set in 1960s Nigeria, Adichie also wrote a play, For Love of Biafra, and short stories- “Ghosts” and “A Private Experience ”- that focus on the lives of characters affected by the war. In “Story Behind the Book,” Adichie’s explanation for her preoccupation with Biafra, she

The author of “The Women of Things Fall Apart, Speaking from a Different Perspective: Chimamanda Adichie’s Headstrong Storytellers,” Anene Ejikeme, claims that Chinua Achebe successfully introduces Ibo culture to a Western audience; however, even Achebe would agree that there cannot just be one story to represent such a complex society, and Ejikeme argues that Things Fall Apart is too centered upon the male’s reaction to English powers. Therefore, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Headstrong Historians” offers a much-needed female perspective of the same introduction of European colonialism. In Things Fall Apart, women are most often displayed as “silent and docile,” and Okonkwo’s wives and daughters most often disappear into the background as Achebe

“This is a time for a new narrative, a narrative in which we truly see those about whom we speak,” Adichie stated in her World Humanization speech. This quote stood out to me because she said that in her native language Igbo, which was the same as Chika’s in her story “A Private Experience”, the word love literally means to see. Adichie’s story and speech were similar in many of ways. They both demonstrated the importance of giving hope and the importance of being kind, or speaking kindly, to everyone especially those who are different than ourselves. In “A Private Experience”, Chika and the woman were both worried about finding their loved ones that they were separated from right before the riot. Chika and the woman gave each other hope by

In the novel “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe teaches us that two cultures are unable to thrive together when they are forcing themselves onto the other through his use of the main protagonist, Okonkwo. This novel, “Things Fall Apart”, is about the African culture of the Ibo people being invaded by western influences in which Okonkwo is trapped within the feud. This book depicts differences between the two colliding cultures, Okonkwo’s culture, and his response to the newly changing environment to present Achebe’s theme.

Did women play a valuable role in the Igbo male dominated society? Or where they nothing more than second class villagers? In Things Fall Apart the author (Chinua Achebe) tackles these questions as he entrenches women as vital parts of the igbo culture. He establishes them as strong, wise, hard-working, courageous, and immensely creative characters; that are only limited by their gender. Whether it’s Okonkwo’s daughter Ezinma or the second wife Ekwefi, Achebe continuously shows the value of the women as members of society.

Questions for “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Cell One 1. What were your thoughts on this first story about the spoiled boy, Nnamabia who stole from neighbors and his own family and always got himself out of whatever jam he was in? 2. Why do you think his family let him get away with such actions for so long? Could you tell they treated boys differently than girls? Do we have examples of such in our own lives. 3. What do you think about the subtle wording about how those that were stealing from around the campus grew up watching Sesame Street, reading Enid Blyton, eating cornflakes, attending

They make one story become the only story” (Adichie). She gives several examples of a single story, one of her example, she was talking with one of American student who read her written novel about Nigerian abusive. He sorrowed to Adichie that Nigerian men were abusive, that was the only single story of Nigeria. Adichie kept her mind cool and took his pity back. Having read American Psycho, she said, “all young Americans men are serial killers” (Adichie). For another example, Adichie addressed about her roommate when she left Nigeria to go to university in the United States. Her roommate was shocked by her, and asked where she had learned to speak English well, and was confused when She said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language. Her roommate asked if she could listen to what she called her “tribal music,” and was very disappointed when she produced her tape to Mariah Carey. Her roommate had a single story of Africa, Adichie said “ there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals” (Adichie). Her point was that when people inform about something, they should tell stories, more than one story about something. “Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories