A Stylistic Analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’

Abstract

A narrator’s role in a story and his relationship with the characters are determined by the point of view from which the story is told. Sometimes he is a character in the story and the story is viewed from his perspective; at other times, he is an omniscient narrator, telling the reader about all the characters in the work. On very few occasions the audience is a character and the story is viewed from their point of view. This paper discusses the linguistic techniques, language choice and their effects in the realisation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's short story, ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’. It explores the author's rare style of the use of the second person narrative perspective all through the entire work which, among other things, makes the reader not just a member of the audience, but a part of the action. This style is of particular interest to this research and discourse on its application runs through the major part of the work. A stylistic analysis of the text is adopted in order to assist readers in making proper meaningful interpretation of the story, and thereby increase their appreciation of the work.