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The Culture of Connection

Ones perspective on life, their background, upbringing, and culture, all combine to

create a worldview personal and unique to them. The Thing Around Your Neck by

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the compelling story of a Nigerian woman, Akunna, her move

to the United States, and her struggle to find herself and her culture within a newfound Western

world. Thus, Adichie uses the second person you, along with an introspective narrator, to

create a deeper understanding of culture and human connection within the text, and between

cultures. It is Adichies goal to create a work that reads familiar, yet foreign. She desires for the

reader to realize that despite culture that may seem unfamiliar, felt experience connects humans,

even across these cultures.

In The Thing Around Your Neck, the you implies that the reader is part of the story,

and asks, or even forces them to be part of the narrative. It is here where the reader is, like

Akunna, forced into a culture foreign from their own. The reader is placed into Akunnas own

culture suddenly, with the background of her Nigerian culture unfolding as the story continues.

Adichie writes, They asked where you learned to speak English and if you had real houses back

in Africa and if youd seen a car beforeThey gawped at your hair. Does it stand up or fall

downAll of it stands up? How? Why? Do you use a comb? (116). Here, the reader is able to

catch a glimpse of how it feels to be picked apart, to feel as if they have to explain who they, and

where they come from. The bombardment of questions remain unanswerable to the reader, and

parallels the loss of words Akunna may have been feeling at that time. It is also here, where the

reader can gain a clearer sense of how others may infer their own perspective on culture, without

having much factual knowledge on the matter.

Furthermore, the you serves dual purposes. At first, it causes a sense of alienation for

the reader. The forced participation may feel uncomfortable, and unlike any experience they

have had in the past. Perhaps the reader is unable to relate to Akunnas Nigerian background, to

a bombardment of ignorant questions, or to the feeling of being placed in a completely new

setting. To assume that the reader will feel easily at home in Akunnas world causes a sense of

dissonance, and even confusion upon intaking so much information on an alternate worldview.

Alienation, a narration outside of ones personal experience, can be difficult for the reader.

Humans desire for connection, and without this instant understanding, the reader may feel utterly

outside of Akunnas experience.

Yet, this sense of uncomfortable newness, this alienation, can cause the reader to relate

to Akunna and her sudden struggle with finding herself, and her own cultural heritage among this

Western world. The reader learns alongside Akunna, finding out about not only her own life, but

how her own upbringing impacts how she interacts with the world. Likewise, the phrase

experience is the best teacher seems to ring true within the usage of second person. The reader

experiences culture alongside Akunna, being asked to partake in her interactions, in her joys, and

in her sorrows. They are forced to see through new eyes, and they are given a new lens through

you, on what it is like to understand newfound identity within an alternative culture.

In a similar fashion, there comes a point where the reader slowly starts to accept the

narration, and the use of second person. Their constant immersion as you becomes a familiar

experience to them. This forced participation allows them to accept, and to know, Akunnas

own reality. Now, the feeling of new culture and isolation are not something far off, but

something lived in. The reader begins to understand Akunnas world through felt experience, and

forced inclusion and insight into her life.

At first, the reader is relatively alone in the second person, without any basis or way to

understand Akunnas culture more deeply. But when the reader, however, is introduced to

Akunnas boyfriend, the plot shifts. Adichie writes, He told you he had been to Ghana and

Uganda and Tanzania, loved the poetry of Okot pBitek and the novels of Amos TutuolaYou

wanted to feel disdainbecause white people who liked Africa too much and those who liked

Africa too little were the samecondescending[but] he didnt have thatexpression of a

person who thought himself better than the people he knew about (120). It is here where the

reader is able to relate Akunnas culture through her relationship to this man. Through empathy

and understanding, the boyfriend brings about something beautiful in Akunnas culture. He treats

it with respect, curiosity, and genuine admiration. He pulls the reader along, as he discusses with

Akunna her own culture, and how this culture works in relation to her new reality. The you is

given a new way to relate to the text, through the use of another, influential character. He shows

the reader, through his own familiarity and care, that the foreign can feel familiar. And, that felt

experience occurs not alone, but within relation to another.

Along with the choice of second-person, Adichie chooses to create a protagonist that is

introspective in regard to her own culture. Introspection involves inward turning in order to think

more deeply, and to understand more fully outside events in relation to oneself. Introspection, at

times, can take the form of writing, to make further sense of events influence on oneself.

Adichie writes on Akunnas own longing, saying, In later weeks, though, you wanted to write

because you had stories to tell. You wanted to write about the surprising openness of people in

Americathe kinds of things that one should hide or reveal only to family members who wished

them well (Adichie 118). Those who desire to write stories have formulated thoughts, feelings,

and experiences over time. They long to put into words what they have seen, felt, and heard;
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something about their experience is worth putting out into the world. Stories share one key factor

in common: they tell the tale of human experience. Thus, the introspective narrator, one who

longs to tell their experiences, portrays a quality of humanness. They desire for human

connection, for shared experience, and for knowledge and wisdom to be brought forth. This

sense of humanness is captured by Adichies use of an introspective narrator, one who looks

deeply inward, and thoughtfully outward, in order to make sense of the world around her.

Thus, because of Adichies choice of an introspective narrator, the reader can also

experience this type of human connection. They are asked to think alongside Akunna in working

through not only memories of her Nigerian past, but how this past works in relation to the

present, and to the future. This creates closeness between the reader and the narrator, and works

in tandem with the second person you. The you, while creating experience between Akunna

and the reader, also reveals to the reader a personalized way to discover the world with Akunna.

The reader gains a sense of their relation to Akunna, not as interpersonal, but as intrapersonal;

they are one with her innermost thoughts and feelings. The reader gains a pure sense of what is

like not just to observe Akunna, but to walk with her, to be like her.

All in all, Adichie uses the influence of the second-person, and an introspective narrator,

to show cultures impact, and felt human connection to the reader. She allows culture, especially

culture that may be foreign, to feel close and personal by using these tactics. The you, while at

times creating distance from the reader, in fact parallels how Akunna felt being placed in an

alternate culture. And yet, as the reader continues, they are invited by Adichie into Akunnas

own world, being place almost literally in her shoes. Her boyfriend aids in revealing that culture

is a felt experience, and that connection happens between persons. To further this, Adichie chose

to create a narrator in-tune and reflective upon her own inner world in relation to her outer world.
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The reader realizes Akunnas deep sense of culture, along with the turmoil she feels in her new

Western world. These emotions and thoughts are not only observed, but felt by and with the

reader. Adichie places her reader within an unfamiliar world, and yet makes it familiar,

impactful, and unforgettable in the process.

Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. The Thing Around Your Neck. The Thing Around Your Neck,

Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp. 116-120.