The Thing Around Your Neck: A Study of Marginal Voice

Abstract

This paper investigates marginal identity through several female characters in the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, examining the predicaments they faced and the resistance they offered. In Nigeria, female immigration soared after independence due to high aspirations for their future economic stability. For this, sometimes they have to undergo multiple challenges, such as being a victim of physical and emotional abuse. These abuses were not being done by outsiders of the society but by their relatives, like boyfriend, husband, uncle, and grandmama, in the name of gender discrimination. This paper aims to highlight the marginalized voices of female immigrants and indigenous people through their identities and resistance. Resistance “has several shades such as non-conformism, protest, propaganda, commitment, criticism; it works in different ways for different people, adopts a variety of means and mediums” (Jain 1). In this research, feminist views and a neocolonial approach are employed, and to support the arguments, a textual analysis method is utilized.