Nigerian-American Cultural Assimilation in "The Thing Around Your Neck"

Chimamanda Adichie’s short story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck, brings to light the challenges immigrants face while adjusting to American culture. In the story “The Arrangers of Marriage” the transition from life in Nigeria to life in America was especially trying for Chinaza. After being arranged to marry a Nigerian-American doctor, Chinaza had expected to easily transition into a prosperous life. She had imagined being welcomed home to a comfortable, suburban home, like she’d seen in American films and television shows. Much to her surprise, she was welcomed home to a small, dinky, New York City flat with rusted sinks and bare mattresses. Within the first day, Chinaza realized how difficult living in the United States would be.

Eleven years prior, Chinaza’s husband, Ofodile Udenwa, completely dismissed his Nigerian roots because he believed that “If you want to get anywhere [in America] you have to be as mainstream as possible. If not, you will be left by the roadside” (172). Thus, he changed his name to Dave Bell and demanded that Chinaza uses her American name, Agatha Bell, as well. However, unlike “Dave”, Chinaza was reluctant to dismiss her African roots.

Similarly to Chinaza, in the story “The Thing Around Your Neck”, Akunna had expected America to be a land of promises. After winning the American visa lottery, she had been told that within a month of living in America, she would have a big house and a big car. Unfortunately, the “American Dream” wouldn't come so easily for Akunna as she realized that “America was give and take” (116).

Unable to afford school, Akunna began work at a restaurant. During one of her shifts, she met a white man who had lived in Africa, and the two eventually started dating. Although she felt comfortable around him, Akunna still felt that the pressures of society were strenuous on their interracial relationship, and made her question the authenticity of her boyfriend’s love. When he offered to pay for Akunna’s return visit to Nigeria, she didn’t accept the offer because she didn’t want him to “gawk at the lives of poor people who could never gawk back at his life” (125). Akunna, while trying to still embrace her Nigerian roots, didn’t want to be her boyfriend’s exotic treasure.