The Thing Around Your Neck

This study guide will help you analyze the text “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. We will show you examples of elements in the text that will be relevant for your analysis. In these notes, we will focus on summary, structure, characters, setting, narrator and point of view, language, and themes.

Presentation of the text

Title: “The Thing Around Your Neck”
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Published in: “Prospect” 99 (magazine)
Date of Publication: 2009
Genre: Short Story

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (b. 1977) is a Nigerian writer who writes in English. She was born as part of the Igbo people and she studied medicine at the University of Nigeria, but moved to the United States, where she eventually studied at Eastern Connecticut State University, Johns Hopkins University, and Yale. She currently spends her time writing and giving lectures regarding feminism or cultural differences. The short story “The Thing Around Your Neck” is part of a short-story collection with the same name, in which she explores the many facets of the Nigerian identity.