Topic > A Theme of Victimization in The Thing Around Your Neck

A collection of short stories titled The Thing Around Your Neck divulges a holistic expression of the position two situation: “Acknowledging the fact that you are a victim, but explaining this as an act of destiny… the necessity decreed by History, or by Economy, or by the Unconscious, or by any other great general and powerful idea”. Each story subtly captures the lives of Nigerians, especially women struggling to identify their roots in a displaced space. The stories selected from the collection can be grouped into the basic position of victim two, as the victimization of personal and intimate experiences is justified with other false and immutable causes. This idea causes the characters' mental state to be unable to shift into the other two positions as they feel the need to be victimized by such conditions in their lives, which forces them to remain stuck in Position Two forever. Each of the stories talks about the characters' psychological anxiety that the fast-paced environment and political unrest causes, the social and family prejudices they encounter in their daily lives that they find difficult to adapt to. There are important female characters who are thrust into similar circumstances, desperate and eager to take a stand to secure their physical and psychological space in life. Even though some of them try to overcome the worst and the best, they feel trapped in the fists of a society predominantly occupied by men and their values. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Almost half of the stories are set in Nigeria, where the characters bear witness to social and political discrepancies, and the other half announce the reason for migration mainly to America, a land that both fascinates and repels immigrants Africans. All of these stories describe victims of Position Two, who are unable to change their situation, despite their attempts to change it. Women in the stories end up rejected or uprooted, as there is less space to express their wants and desires. Everyone tries to sacrifice their past with the hope of a new life, full of promises, but they are forced to witness an entrapment, physical and psychological, which becomes further inevitable, especially for immigrants. From Heather Hewett's perspective, the collection of stories possesses, the author's steadfast gaze on the psychic spaces that can explode between close friends and family often produces a heartbreaking effect. Many (though not all) of her characters are women who suddenly find themselves emotionally estranged or displaced and must find the inner strength to face these distances.” Review Of the stories set in Nigeria, “A Private experience” presents the immediate and brief companionship of two women with contrasting economic, social and religious backgrounds who face the same social crisis that arises from a violent religious conflict in the country. Women are at serious risk of losing a family member when they find refuge in an abandoned shop. Chika, a wealthy Igbo Christian doctor, worries about her revolutionary sister Nnedi, while the poor Hausa Muslim woman, who saves Chika, prays for her missing daughter, who sold peanuts during the uprising. The difference in their social and economic status does not change the current problem they are experiencing. Chika feels intimidated, because she thinks “riots like this were what she read about in the newspapers. Riots like this are what happened to other people.” The Hausa Muslim woman, who has witnessed many such incidents in her daily life,pray with vain hope. Women's mutual understanding is strengthened by inner compassion towards their families, rather than by the selfish and irrational behavior of men who promote violence in the name of religious intolerance. The former produces a kind of mutual bond for peaceful existence, the latter represents a threat to survival. Adichie's story also reveals the bitter secondary condition of women who are unable to control devastating conflicts, but barely manage to survive carrying with them memories of compassion. The women's private crying shows her passive acceptance of survival amid the consequences of violence and turmoil in her society, because she could only resign herself to her situation as a “work of evil.” He also shows that his “explanation shifts the cause from the true source of the oppression to something else.” Women's experience is limited by passivity as they may only want things to happen and not happen, because they are far from changing their helpless situation. The Hausa woman can only pray to God or curse the destructive forces of society: she is in no position to improve her condition, but experiences inevitable victimhood. Chika has no serious belief towards the omniscient presence, and thus her realization of the absurdity of life is reflected in the lines: Later, the family will offer masses again and again for Nnedi to be found safe, though never for the rest of the Nnedi's soul. And Chika will think of this woman, praying with her head turned to the dusty floor, and will change her mind about telling her mother that offering masses is a waste of money. Which is just a fundraiser for the church. The passage echoes his loss of faith and long resignation to the futility of existence. Women are like the objects that are seriously damaged in this kind of male-created violence, and they are like the “silent witnesses”, who do not have the demand to resist but suffer all the dangerous consequences. There is always a restlessness and anxiety in dealing with the repercussions of the violent conflict around them. A sense of evanescence and uncertainty about the future revolves around them. Only women carry bitter memories with them as they emotionally depend on other human beings to share and care. The narrator shows how this type of violence is constituted by oppressive socio-political ideologies of the dominant classes and how the interpretation of the source of violence is underestimated as riots triggered by ethnic tensions. It can be understood that both women, regardless of all differences, share a common debilitating situation that cripples their survival. While there is a positive, lifelong memorable female bond, unexpected human loss leaves permanent marks of the incongruous nature of survival itself. Jumping Monkey Hill captures the story of a young Ujunwa writer, who has been selected to participate in the African Writers Workshop organized by a dominant white patriarch, Richard. When each participant is asked to write a story for their publication, Ujunwa reads her story of a girl who left her job at the bank for the client who insisted on sexual intercourse in exchange for the policies. The seminar organizer, Edward, who has lewd intentions towards Ujunwa, points out an error in her story as inauthentic and implausible, as it does not reflect the real lives of Nigerians. Edward representing the dominant patriarchal white males, showing their arrogance and dominance over the blacks they struggle to encourage themselves. Young women like Ujunwa face sexual abuse and threats everywhere in society controlled by men in higher positions. Theresource of oppression is prevalent in social institutions that devalue women as objects of sexual desire. Ujunwa is a social victim, who finds herself in danger when faced with economic, cultural and sexual exploitation. Ujunwa feels helpless in standing up to the white chauvinist Edward as she is disappointed by her fellow Africans' undoubted attitude towards his sexist attitudes. Feeling betrayed by them, she asks, “Why don't we always say anything?” This kind of attitude is why they might kill you and herd you into the townships and ask you for passes before you can walk on your land!” His expression of discontent with Richard is simply ignored as "anger", since he could not complain further. The author explains that "Often, Black women's opposition is characterized as personal, and there is little acknowledgment or concern for the larger issues that may be the root of Black women's perceived anger and hostility." Black African men's idealization of Western white values ​​becomes a huge disadvantage to Black women as they experience double victimization. In terms of the victor-victim role, as explained by Atwood, Edward takes on the former, while deriding his story as "agenda writing" that does not reflect the original lives of Africans. Although his arrogance is revealed through his hypocritical and biased remarks in revising his story as “Women are never victimized in that cruel way and certainly not in Nigeria. Nigeria has women in high positions. The most powerful minister today is a woman." Ujunwa could not openly show her anger towards him because she is stuck in the need to make a living as a writer. It is also implied that freedom of expression is also crippled along with his soul as he feels that the role of the victim is inevitable. Although Ujunwa escapes from the previous humiliating banking job that requires her sexual servitude, she faces another new form of subjugation from the condescending Edward. The absence of choice leads her to accept her victimhood as sources of survival become a question. More emphatically, “it is the necessity decreed by the Economy,” that Ujunwa presupposes one's need to be a victim. This is another type of psychological entrapment as the story shows the real condition of unemployed women struggling to overcome poverty. “The American Embassy” presents another attempted exile of a woman who lost her son at the hands of cold-hearted soldiers seeking her journalist husband for writing an article against the head of state. As she tries to escape to America via an asylum visa, explaining the reason for her son Ugonna's death, she ultimately fails, lacking any evidence to produce to prove government involvement in his murder. The despotic arrogance of the military government ruined the woman's "new life", which she had been building since the birth of her son. The main character of The American Embassy is similar to what Atwood calls in his analysis “the ultimate victim of oppression and social deprivation.” The basic game of Position Two is the Winner/Victim role. The unnamed woman is obviously a victim of the oppressive politics of the country Nigeria, where the Winners are the men who work at the head of the despotic government that crushes its critics and those who oppose it. The horror of the merciless violence witnessed by the mother shows the difficult survival of the country. The memory of the tragedy cannot be erased so easily from the mental space. Adichie shows her mother's pain: Dr. Balogun... had refused to give her more tranquilizers because she waseasy enough for him to say, as if he knew how to keep his mind blank... as if he invited those images of his son Ugonna's small, chubby body crumpling before her, the splash on his chest so red she wanted to scold him for playing with palm oil in the kitchen. It is Ugonna's mother who is directly affected by the autocratic rule in Nigeria. Adichie shows how the lives of Nigerians were in crisis, their sudden transformation as they could not have any control over their lives. In a shorter period of time, a topsy-turvy situation arises that brings out the anxiety of an inexorable fate. Adichie shows the weakened existence of civilians by denoting them in a condensed sentence to show the ephemerality of their lives: “Two days ago she had buried her son in a grave near a vegetable patch in their ancestral hometown of Umunnachi… the day before , she had brought her husband in the trunk of their Toyota... who smuggled him out of the country... And the day before she didn't need to take a passport photo; she feels a lifelong sense of guilt for not protecting her son, and feels even more guilt for even saving her selfish husband from Nigeria, leaving her son's life at stake right now of the voice to ask for justice, since this is orchestrated by the corrupt politician of the state. A wave of indelible guilt pervades her as she “hugged Ugonna's body, rested her cheek on his calm chest and realized that she was not. have never been so ashamed. She had disappointed him. All the losses and guilt are only for women like her, as she imbibes with her family more than her husband, who quickly runs away without caring about his family. Adichie presents the disheartening plight of people who flee their homeland and seek refuge in another that is not entirely conducive to their arrival. The civilians' desperate attempt is due to their lack of choice. It shows how people are invented to adopt quick solutions and accustomed to the temporariness of life. The man standing next to her in the visa queue recommends what might have been the common suggestion of desperate Nigerians who want to get rid of the besmirched nation to survive peacefully: “It seemed like the voices that were around her, the people who helped... Tell them everything about Ugonna, how she was, but without exaggerating, because every day people lie to obtain an asylum visa, about dead and unborn relatives. Make Ugonna real. Cry, but don't cry too much." Men like the husband, apparently a political activist, become fugitive and imprudent during times of crisis. The apparently courageous and patriotic journalist husband is the one who rushes to escape selfishly, leaving his family When Ugonna's mother takes care of his safe escape from the country, he does not even pay a word of attention to his family until he reaches the other country safely unlike men, who always present themselves as individuals who are committed to the well-being of society as one of the "truly courageous men" to save Nigeria, even if "it was not courage, it was simply exaggerated selfishness". The social and political participation of women is considered trivial and insignificant. The political arena delimits women by pushing them to the margins of important places. It is one of the social criticisms that Adichie makes towards her own country. It shows how women's actions are little or never recognized even if they show the same talent and courage. 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