Oppression and Hope

 
     After reading The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,  I found her twelve stories very interesting.  Each story had the same background, which was that the characters were Nigerian or spoke Igbo.  The same places created a pattern: Nigeria, Lagos, and America.  Many of the stories were about the lives of African immigrants who moved to America for a better life, whether that be by visa or marriage.  At times this repetition of how life was different in America and how the main character's life changed was dull to me.  I found myself spacing out and having to reread a passage because it felt like I had already read the chapter before.  Despite this, I did enjoy the stories and thought the novel was beautifully written by showing the reader true African culture.  I think that part of the reason this novel was written was to show readers the struggles or challenge that some parts of Africa face everyday.

     The hostility and corruption of government was a theme in the many of the stories.  Cell One, A Private Experience, and The American Embassy gave a detailed depiction of the corruption and violence in the government and political system.  Fear was prominent in many of the characters within these stories.  America was used throughout the stories as a symbol of hope and escape from the perils in Africa.

    Oppression seemed to be a reoccurring word that I thought of when reading the novel.  Besides government oppression, domestic oppression seemed to jump out at me.  I found the stories Imitation, The Arrangers of Marriage, and Jumping Monkey Hill to be driven by male oppression against the female characters.  In each of the stories, it seemed to me that the men tended to dictate or determine how the women should talk, act, and live.  What was uplifting and inspiring was the courage and strength that those women had at the end of their stories to stand up for themselves.  Although the women may not have acted in the same manner, they still were filled with hope and confidence.

    I think the novel did a good job in illustrating the contrasts between African and American culture. I thought it was neat how the author was able to keep a familiar pattern between places and languages, but also was able to make each story a completely different and unique.