ENGLISH TEXT SUMMARY NOTES The Thing Around Your Neck Text guide by: Myra Hardy
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The Thing Around Your Neck 3 Contents AUTHOR NOTES... 6 Other texts... 6 Prizes, awards and other accolades... 6 HISTORICAL CONTEXT... 8 Nigeria... 8 GENRE... 9 Title... 9 STRUCTURE... 10 Cell One (P. 3 21)... 11 Setting... 11 Narrative Voice... 11 Plot Summary... 11 Characters... 13 Relationships between characters... 14 Vocabulary... 14 Imitation (P. 22 42)... 15 Setting... 15 Narrative Voice... 15 Plot Summary... 15 Characters... 17 Relationships between characters... 18 Vocabulary... 18 A Private Experience (P. 43-56)... 20 Setting... 20 Narrative Voice... 20 Plot Summary... 20 Characters... 22 Relationships between characters... 22 Vocabulary... 22 Ghosts (P. 57 73)... 24 Setting... 24 Narrative Voice... 24 Plot Summary... 24 Characters... 26 Relationships between characters... 27 On Monday of Last Week (P. 74 94)... 28 Setting... 28 Narrative Voice... 28 Plot Summary... 28 Characters... 30 Relationships between characters... 31 Vocabulary... 31 Jumping Monkey Hill (P. 95 114)... 32
The Thing Around Your Neck 4 Setting... 32 Narrative Voice... 32 Plot Summary... 32 Characters... 35 Relationships between characters... 36 Vocabulary... 37 The Thing Around Your Neck (P. 115 127)... 38 Setting... 38 Narrative Voice... 38 Plot Summary... 38 Characters... 41 Relationships between characters... 41 Vocabulary... 41 The American Embassy (P. 128 141)... 43 Setting... 43 Narrative Voice... 43 Plot Summary... 43 Characters... 45 Relationships between characters... 45 Vocabulary... 46 The Shivering (P.142 166)... 47 Setting... 47 Narrative Voice... 47 Plot Summary... 47 Characters... 49 Relationships between characters... 50 Vocabulary... 50 The Arrangers of Marriage (P. 167 186)... 51 Setting... 51 Narrative Voice... 51 Plot Summary... 51 Characters... 53 Relationships between characters... 54 Vocabulary... 54 Tomorrow Is Too Far (P. 187 197)... 55 Setting... 55 Narrative Voice... 55 Plot Summary... 55 Characters... 57 Relationships between characters... 58 Vocabulary... 58 The Headstrong Historian (P. 198 218)... 59 Setting... 59 Narrative Voice... 59 Plot Summary... 59 Characters... 63 Relationships between characters... 64 Vocabulary... 64
The Thing Around Your Neck 5 THEMES AND ISSUES... 65 Leaving... 65 Being Female... 65 Anxiety... 66 Belonging... 66 IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS... 68 SAMPLE ESSAY TOPICS... 74 FINAL EXAMINATION ADVICE... 75 REFERENCES... 76 References used and References for Students... 76
The Thing Around Your Neck 6 AUTHOR NOTES Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1977. She grew up with her family in Nsukka where her father, James, worked at the University of Nigeria and her mother, Grace, was the registrar. In 1996 Adichie moved to the United States of America. She gained a scholarship to study communication at Drexel University in Philadelphia for two years and then studied a degree in communication and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University. After graduating in 2001, Adichie completed her master s degree in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. While studying at Eastern Connecticut State University, Adichie began working on her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, published in 2003.Half of a Yellow Sun was published in 2006 and is set before and during the Biafra War (Nigerian Civil War). In 2008 Adichie earned an MA in African Studies from Yale University.Her collection of short stories The Thing Around Your Neck was published in 2009. Adichie, now married, divides her time between the United States and Nigeria. She regularly teaches writing workshops. In 2013 she published her latest literacy piece, Americanah, which focuses on the experiences of Nigerian immigrants in the United States. Other texts Purple Hibiscus (2003) Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) The Thing Around Your Neck (2009) Prizes, awards and other accolades Purple Hibiscus Shortlisted for the Orange Fiction Award 2004 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award 2004 (Best Debut Fiction Category) Long listed for the Booker Prize 2004 Awarded Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book 2005 Half of a Yellow Sun Anisfield-Wolf Book Award 2007 (fiction category) PEN 'Beyond Margins' Award 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007 The Thing Around Your Neck Long listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award 2009 Shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009 Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010: Best Book (Africa)
The Thing Around Your Neck 7 Nominated for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize 2010 (runner-up) Other Future... Award (Young Person of the Year category), 2008 MacArthur Foundation 'genius' grant, 2008 Nominated for the Reader s Digest Author of the Year Award, 2008 International Nonino Prize, 2009 Listed among The New Yorker's '20 Under 40', 2010