Themes and Motifs
- Immigration & Cultural Displacement
- Akunna travels to the U.S. with hopes of success but instead faces poverty, loneliness, and disillusionment.
- cf. “You thought everybody in America had a car and a gun.”
- She feels alienated from American society and from her Nigerian roots.
- cf. you “thought about home”
- Highlights the emotional toll of migration: homesickness, identity confusion, loss of belonging.
- Akunna travels to the U.S. with hopes of success but instead faces poverty, loneliness, and disillusionment.
- Loneliness & Isolation
- Akunna struggles to form meaningful relationships; her only support is fragile.
- The metaphorical “thing around her neck” represents suffocation and emotional detachment.
- Her emotional and physical isolation reflects the immigrant’s internal struggle.
- Identity & Belonging
- Akunna is caught between Nigerian identity and American expectations.
- She struggles to see where she fits socially, culturally, emotionally.
- Relationship with her boyfriend exposes cultural differences that remain unresolved.
- Exoticization & Cultural Misunderstanding
- The boyfriend treats Akunna’s cultural background as mysterious and exciting.
- His intentions are kind, but his interest objectifies her rather than understanding her lived experience.
- Reveals how Western curiosity about Africa often reinforces stereotypes.
- Akunna feels like others are looking at them weirdly, as if they consider their interracial relationship abnormal.
- cf. “You knew by people’s reactions that you two were abnormal”
- Disillusionment & The Failure of the American Dream
- Akunna expects prosperity in the U.S., but instead lives in poverty and instability.
- cf. “You could not afford to go to school”
- Her skilled work ethic does not translate into opportunity, contradicting the myth of equal success.
- Adichie critiques American society’s false promise of immigrant success.
- Family Ties & Loss
- Akunna’s emotional distance from her family grows as she adjusts to America.
- Her father’s death symbolizes a broken connection to home and belonging.
- Reveals the emotional cost of migration and separation.
- Motif: The “Thing Around Your Neck”
- Recurring metaphor describing a choking feeling.
- Symbolizes emotional pressure, trauma, anxiety, and suffocation in the new environment.
- Represents the psychological burden of cultural isolation and displacement.
- Motif: Letters / Communication
- Contact with family is rare and fades over time.
- cf. “You wrote home finally”
- Represents emotional distance and the difficulty of maintaining identity abroad.
- Loss of communication symbolizes loss of roots.
- Motif: Food & Culture
- Food highlights differences between Nigerian and American cultures.
- Represents comfort, home, and cultural memory.
- Through food, Adichie shows longing and the difficulty of assimilation.
- cf. “now you would be able to cook onugbu soup”