The Thing Around Your Neck

The Thing Around Your Neck is a book which contains a few short stories written by Chimamanda Adichie. Most of the stories revolve around the themes of societal Nigerian norms, the western influence and freedom. To me the most interesting topic to read about are the societal norms as most of the stories are set in Nigeria and most of the characters are Nigerian. Because of this the reader is able to learn everything about the Nigerian Society. The first short story “cell one” depicts Nigerian prisons and how bribing was almost ‘normal’ there. The story showed the difference between how the rich Nigerian were treated compared to the poor. I find that these short stories teach a lot about a culture which I don’t particularly know about. In her short stories Adichie uses Igbo language which I find is very strong and contributes to making the story more believable.