VATE INSIDE STORIES 2014—THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK

Inside Stories

The Thing Around Your Neck
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Teaching notes prepared by Yasmine McCafferty
Edited by Tony Thompson

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................3 WAYS INTO THE TEXT ..............................................................................................5 RUNNING SHEET AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE TEXT ......................................6 CHARACTERS..........................................................................................................17 ISSUES AND THEMES.............................................................................................20 LANGUAGE AND STYLE..........................................................................................26 FURTHER ACTIVITIES.............................................................................................28 KEY QUOTES ...........................................................................................................31 TEXT RESPONSE TOPICS ......................................................................................33 REFERENCES, RESOURCES AND SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS ...........................34 Cover design by Viveka de Costa
Formatted by Maria Anagnostou
© VATE 2013
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Disclaimer: This Inside Stories contains the writer’s perspective and does not necessarily reflect the views of VATE.

© VATE Inside Stories 2014—THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK

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VATE INSIDE STORIES 2014—THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK

INTRODUCTION
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria and is an Igbo woman. Both her mother and father worked at the University of Nigeria, he a professor and she a registrar. After initially beginning to study medicine in Nigeria,
Adichie moved to the United States when she was 19, completing a Masters in
Creative Writing from John Hopkins. She also studied at Princeton and Yale, and many of these university environments, staff and students, figure in her stories. She now divides her time between the two countries.
Adichie has been celebrated as a new voice in Nigerian writing. Her compelling prose and her articulate personality have made her a popular choice at writers’ festivals and for television interviews. This means that there are many links to her presentations on the Internet. She is a powerful and confident speaker; watching some of these is highly recommended.
As readers become more familiar with Adichie’s works, it is easy to find comparisons between her life experiences and her writing. It is therefore important to remember that her narrators are not Adichie, although she clearly has common concerns and ideas that recur in her writing. She has spoken widely about the ‘dangers of a single story’ and, as a consequence, if you are studying this text with a class, it would be wise to encourage them to read widely around other West African/Nigerian writers for a broader perspective.
Nigeria is the most populous country in West Africa and consists of over 500 different ethnic groups, with Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba being the most common.
These are historically, religiously and culturally divided ethnic groups. Britain formally colonised the region in 1914 and created a single nation calling it The Colony and
Protectorate of Nigeria. Over the years the move towards independence grew stronger until it was declared in 1960. It was divided largely between Christians in the North and Muslims in the South.
In the 1960s, there was internal strife and civil war, as 250 different groups and individuals fought for control. There were periods of democracy and also military rule. In 1967, there was a 30-month civil war when Biafra unsuccessfully tried to form its own country. This left much bloodshed and famine in its wake, with 3.5 million dead. In the 70s, Nigeria’s economy rose as the price of oil skyrocketed—oil having been found off the coast in the 1950s. The country was largely ruled by the military with shorter periods of civilian rule until 1999 when it returned to a democracy. Over this time, it was characterised by human rights abuses and corruption. There has been much ethnic violence and associated deaths estimated up to 10,000 people, as well as rioting connected to the price of oil and strikes to ensure a more fair distribution of the wealth.
At the moment, more than three quarters of the country live in extreme poverty. More recently, the obscure fundamentalist Islamist group Boko Haram has been attacking
Christians and committing other terrorist attacks. The country of over 115 million people is still beset by sectarian violence and its future as yet unsure.
A very readable link to Nigerian history is this review by Adichie of Chinua Achebe’s latest non-fiction on the Biafran war: .
© VATE Inside Stories 2014—THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK

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