The Thing Around Your Neck (Metaphor)
In "The Thing Around Your Neck," Akunna feels as if an imaginary force is strangling and suffocating her. This sensation is a metaphor for the mounting pressure that Akunna feels in her life. In the United States, Akunna is overcome by environmental pressures. She has difficulty adjusting to American life, and she is barely able to support herself financially. In addition, she often feels isolated and lonely. Akunna is unable to feel free or be herself around her boyfriend due to their cultural differences, thus contributing to her feelings of suffocation.
Blood (Simile)
In "The American Embassy," the narrator compares a man's blood to palm oil. In Nigerian culture, palm oil is an essential cooking ingredient. This simile represents the normalization of war and violence in Nigerian society. Blood has become a nondescript image that does not elicit any concern or shock from onlookers. This contributes to the story's eerie, dystopian tone.
Head Full of Cotton Wool (Metaphor)
In "The Arrangers of Marriage," Chinaza describes the sensation she experiences after her plane lands in America. She describes her head as having been stuffed "full of cotton wool." This metaphor indicates Chinaza's lack of clearheadedness. She feels as though she has no conscious motivations for uprooting her entire life, and this sentiment continues to remain with her throughout the story.
The Air (Metaphor)
In "The American Embassy," the narrator describes the air as hanging "heavy with moist heat." This is an example of pathetic fallacy. The protagonist feels as though the environment is physically oppressive. The physicality of the environment signifies the emotional oppression that the narrator experiences. As a victim of statewide violence, she is distressed by her country's political situation.
Hair (Simile)
In "The Thing Around Your Neck," the narrator compares her hair to that of her partner's. She explains that his hair is "soft and yellow like the swinging tassels of growing corn, mine dark and bouncy like the filling of a pillow." This physical difference indicates the couple's interracial relationship. Even though the narrator comments on a small physical difference between herself and her boyfriend, it indicates how her relationship does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, she is subject to society's judgments and stereotypes about her interracial relationship.
