The Thing Around Your Neck Sparknotes

One’s commitment of immigrating to a new country for a better life indicates that oneself is ready to risk the life given to them by facing many hardships along the way. In the novel Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, Enrique does exactly that, risking his own life at the age of seventeen in order to reunite with his mother who left him when he was five in order to obtain a better job in the US and give Enrique and his older sister everything she thought they deserved. Nazario utilizes an emotional appeal and metaphors to inform readers of the arduous situations migrants experience on their long and tiring journey in search of a family member and a better future.

The novel Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera brings to light many issues faced by immigrant women. The novel follows the young Makina in her quest to find and bring home her brother from what she imagines to be a mystical far away land. While the novel focuses on the challenges of immigration, the underlying meaning is much more complex. In Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding the End of the World, the common misconception that women cannot be the strong character in the novel is challenged. This is achieved by having the female protagonist, Makina, go on a quest to save her brother, be a vital individual in her community, and fight the misogynistic society she lives in.

Many immigrants have a unique story that may reveal the reason for entering another country. Often, this decision leads to a desire of starting a new life in a country that has beyond opportunities to offer. Much like in the stories “A Proper Goodbye” by Katherine Vlassie, “Ajax la-bas” by Yeshim Ternar, and “Nach Unten” by Janice Keefer all give insights to the lives of immigrant women and the hardships they go through. In these short stories, the experiences of the women in minority groups unite them in a way that the inability to learn a new language for whichever reason, limits them from developing as an individual, reinforcement of their fears, and are oppressed by society thus affecting their daily lives.

The poems ‘Still I Rise’ and ‘Unknown Girl’ both explore the way women are expected to behave in specific societies. ‘Still I Rise’ focuses on Maya Angelou’s refusal to accept racism and to allow “them”, white oppressors, to push her down. ‘Unknown Girl’ focuses on Moniza Alvi’s want to be accepted in a society where she belongs, but can’t call her own.

Women themselves perpetuate their inferiority; the author recounts a moment in her life when her emotional connection with her mother was interrupted abruptly by a telephone call from her brother. In this instance, the mother chose to speak with her son, the Chicano, over her daughter, the Chicana.

Immigrants come from different parts of the world in many shades of white, brown, and black. In extreme cases, some immigrants are stereotyped as rapists, thieves, drug dealers, etc. or at the very least seen as second-class citizens. Depending if they support the issue or not, even the red or blue side of the political party, people tend to blind themselves from the reality of why they actually migrate. Natives tend to deny seeing the humanity in immigrants’ individual stories and lives. They not only migrate to different countries for better opportunities, but to find jobs to support their families and give their children a better education than they would have had in their country. George Saunders’ short story, The Semplica-Girl Diaries, relates to immigration because the SG’s reflect the treatment of immigrant workers in our society. The SG’s display women who have lived in extreme poverty and don’t have a better choice but to sell themselves to the rich as lawn

In July 2009, at a TED conference, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian author, gave a stunning speech about “the Danger of a Single Story”. In her speech, she mentioned about negative consequences happening when people tend to form stereotypes based on a single story, the one-sided argument. The single story blindfolds our eyes and prevents us from seeing the complexity, diversity, and similarities that construct our world, just as Adichie says “these negative stories is to flatten my experience and overlook the many other stories that formed me” (12:56). Listening to all her own personal experience and argument, I have become fully convinced and also see myself reflected in her stories. The single story can cause underlying and harmful impacts not only on personal issues but also on the global scale.

The book challenges perspectives by daring the reader to empathize with a minority group and try to see from a point of view less commonly discussed

Throughout life, every individual must face obstacles; some more difficult than others. In the story “The Trip” by Laila Lalami, poem “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, and article “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas, there is a main character who has to face many challenges because of the fact that they’re immigrants. In all three texts, it is evident that being an immigrant has many affects on their lives. However, this label and the obstacles that come with it didn’t stop each character from pushing forward.

The themes of two short stories, Cell One and Tomorrow is Too Far, in the anthology of The Thing You Wear Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have similarity. Both these short stories have many elements in common. Both short story have a common theme of relationship. In Cell One, the narrator narrates various habits of her brother Nnamabia. She analyzes the events as if she is standing outside the circle of her family and community. Similarly, in Tomorrow is Too Far the narrator tells her experiences which portray the fact that she is discriminated by her grandmother and her mother. The narrator also lets the readers know that everyone likes and prefers her brother Nonso. In both of the short stories, Cell One and Tomorrow is Too Far,

Traditions and old teachings are essential to Native American culture; however growing up in the modern west creates a distance and ignorance about one’s identity. In the beginning, the narrator is in the hospital while as his father lies on his death bed, when he than encounters fellow Native Americans. One of these men talks about an elderly Indian Scholar who paradoxically discussed identity, “She had taken nostalgia as her false idol-her thin blanket-and it was murdering her” (6). The nostalgia represents the old Native American ways. The woman can’t seem to let go of the past, which in turn creates confusion for the man to why she can’t let it go because she was lecturing “…separate indigenous literary identity which was ironic considering that she was speaking English in a room full of white professors”(6). The man’s ignorance with the elderly woman’s message creates a further cultural identity struggle. Once more in the hospital, the narrator talks to another Native American man who similarly feels a divide with his culture. “The Indian world is filled with charlatan, men and women who pretend…”

For centuries, a great deal of ethnic groups have been disempowered and persecuted by others. However, one should realize that none are more intense than the oppression of women. In the novel, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, women living in the Mango Street neighborhood suffer from their restricted freedom. Three such women, Rafaela, Mamacita, and Sally, provide great examples. All try to escape from their dreadful environment. Most of them fail, but at first, Sally seems to succeed in escaping from her father. However, she ends up meeting a husband as equally bad as her father. Ultimately, the men who live with Rafaela, Mamacita, and Sally act as insuperable obstacles that limit the freedom in their women’s lives.

Her Wild American Self by Evelina Galang is a collection of short stories that reflects on not only what it means to be A Filipina-American but a woman in society. Being both of those things subsequently leads to everyday struggles that involve interpersonal conflicts, societal pressures, and familial obligations. Women often sacrifice so much of their feelings and consequently themselves when trying to deal with such a harsh reality. This reality which relies heavily on society also forces women to become subservient in many aspects of their lives and does not allow them to speak out and defend themselves in times of need. Myself, like so many of the women in Galang’s stories, have gone through feelings of shame and guilt while trying to

“The Headstrong Historian”, a short story among a collection of stories written by Chimamanda Adichie in the novel, The Thing Around Your Neck talks about a woman who gives her only son, who was born after several miscarriages, off to foreigners to train him in the English language in order to be a better public speaker, so he could win a property acquisition case against her in-laws in court, following her husband’s death, but instead, he gets completely transformed by the statutes of the white man and she has no choice but to accept him even when he tries to impose the white man’s practices on her. In this paper, I’m going to be using the concepts of Ambivalence and Hegemony, and Bechdel Test and Gender

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.