The Thing Around Your Neck Short Story Summary

The first aspect both stories have in common is the fact that both of the women are oppressed by a man in their life.“The

Drown; a compilation of short stories, by Junot Diaz portrays the integration of fiction and truth. Yunior, narrator, as he tells his stories, he exaggerates and jumps from one period of his life to another. The characters of the story can relate to many young adults. Their experiences and the journeys of their lives are what most Hispanic teenagers go through. The 10 different stories explain the different themes shown throughout the book. The Hispanic community faces many problems and Diaz states a couple of them; gender immigration, violence, drugs, family, cultural identity, and the Latin experience.

The theme the two stories share is about growing up. In the story "Brothers are the Same" Temas had to attempt to slay a lion to prove to the Masai

Drown; a compilation of short stories, by Junot Diaz portrays the integration of fiction and truth. Yunior, narrator, as he tells his stories, he exaggerates and jumps from one period of his life to another. The characters of the story can relate to many young adults. Their experiences and the journeys of their lives are what most Hispanic teenagers go through. The 10 different stories explain the different themes shown throughout the book. The Hispanic community faces many problems and Diaz states a couple of them; gender immigration, violence, drugs, family, cultural identity, and the Latin experience.

Many factors led these nine men to sign up for the Marines in 1966. Though small towns often exemplified the social and racial division between classes, like that of Morenci where Native Americans still lived on reservations, and the Mexican American people were viewed as, “lazy, shiftless, and untrustworthy.” (Longley, 21) Leroy, Clive, and Robert, who are Mexican Americans, wanted to join the war because they all had cousins, uncles, and fathers that served in WWII, and this led their ancestors to have more respect in the community, “The value of

While each story had their contrasting elements, the base theme of each was remarkably similar; Both of the authors manipulate the theme of motherhood to examine the ideas of slavery, home and forgiveness during two very different time periods.

Dorothy Allison's “I'm Working on My Charm” is a story of a young sixteen-year-old girl who works as a waitress with her mother. As a young daughter coming to the same field as the mother, the mother becomes a role model here and supports and helps her daughter on becoming a good waitress. She makes sure the environment her daughter is working on is good and that she is aware of the Yankees. Yankees doesn't see waitresses on the same level as they are. So, the mother is worried how her daughter will deal with Yankees and makes sure she knows how to handle different situations. The daughter is taught to use her charm to influence people. Also, Mabel, her mother's friend, teaches her how to bet on tips from customer. This story illustrates how an older person can be a guide for younger ones to be successful and accepted in the society.

There is a notion that people in society have been trying to obtain the “American Dream” forever. These dreams breed and give birth to different patterns and concepts, such as fear and desire. Drown by Junot Diaz reflects the fears and desires associated with the struggles of immigrants. Yunior the main character in Drown faces struggles with those. Yunior’s fears of losing his cultural identity, but at the same time being an outsider. The fear of falling short and not gaining power is something he grapples with. Yunior desires to surpass his father, and become a better man than him. While he also desires to become a part of the dominate culture and retain the Dominican Republic values. Despite reaching for the ideals of the American Dream,

     Tim O’Brien is drafted one month after graduating from Macalester College to fight a war he hated. Tim O’Brien believed he was above the war, and as a result pursued the alternative of escaping across the border to Canada. This understandable act is what Tim O’Brien considers an

Junot Díaz’s Drown, a collection of short stories, chronicles the events of Yunior and his family. Each story focuses Yunior and his struggle growing up as a Dominican immigrant and finding a place for himself within American society. Throughout the progression of the novel, Yunior realizes the stereotypes placed on him and recognizes that being white is advantageous. Yunior’s experience growing up both in the Dominican Republic and the States has shaped his perspective on life and life choices.

Every immigrant has a personal story, pains and joys, fears and victories, and Junot Díaz portrays much of his own story of immigrant life in “Drown”, a collection of 10 short stories. In each of his stories Diaz uses a first-person narrator who is observing others to speak on issues in the Hispanic community. Each story is related, but is a separate picture, each with its own title. The novel does not follow a traditional story arc but rather each story captures a moment in time. Diaz tells of the barrios of the Dominican Republic and the struggling urban communities of New Jersey.

When looking at these two stories there was a crystal resemblance between both pieces, yet there were numerous disparities. In the beginning of the story, Initiation, the protagonist, Millicent was attempting to enter “The” sorority of High school. Like Jerry who is trying to swim through the tunnel, she had to face many challenges to achieve her goal. Although these characters both display different attributes, they share the same ambition in the end. Both characters changed over the story. They reached a maturity level which changed the way they saw the world. Millicent didn't want to be in the sorority, her eyes opened and she missed her old life. Jerry went home, rather than swimming, because after they accomplished their goals, they

Okita and Cisneros write about similar events just from the experiences of 2 different people of 2 different nationalities. Both writings talk about different cultures living in America and being identified as an American, even if their appearances don't exactly fit the standard view of an American.

Dinaw Mengestu, Richard Rodriguez and Manuel Munoz are three authors that have been through and gone through a lot of pain to finaly get accepted in their societies. They are all either immigrants or children of immigrants that had trouble fitting in America’s society at the time. They struggled with language and their identities, beucase they were not original from the states and it was difficult for others to accept them for who they are. They all treated their problems differently an some tried to forget their old identeties and live as regulalr Americans others accepted themselves for being who they are, but they all found a way to deal with their issues.

Approximately one million immigrants migrate per year to the United States, and the US is not the only country that takes in immigrants. The immigrants joining American culture and society - or any culture for the matter - leave their old lives behind and assimilate to the social and political norms of the culture. In The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the collection of stories have characters facing the reality of immigrating to a country that is not their home. While the stories are fictional, there is a sense of autobiography in Adichie’s work - going through similar situations as her characters do. The stories are about characters being a local of Africa, facing the common themes of oppression, assimilation, and reality. Written in 2009, The Thing Around Your Neck has a more modern setting that immigrants in 2017 could be facing now. Throughout the text, Adichie shows how immigrants are marginalized when attempting to join American culture and society.