View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In “The American Embassy,” what does the woman remember the government agents smelled like, when they came to her house?

2. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," what is Dozie’s relationship to Nonso?

3. In “The Headstrong Historian,” what did Afamefuna come to value instead of “the hard, obvious things printed in books” (216)?

4. In “The American Embassy,” what spectacle does the woman not pay attention to?

5. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," why did Grandmama say that Nonso could sip the coconuts first?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator characterize the rules in America, in "The Thing Around Your Neck"?

2. Who is the You in the story "The Thing Around Your Neck"?

3. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," how does the narrator characterize the relationship between herself and Dozie?

4. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," what caused Nonso to receive preferential treatment among the three children in the story?

5. In “The Arrangers of Marriage,” how does the narrator characterize the apartment she arrives in with her husband?

6. In “The Shivering,” how does Chinedu explain away Ukamaka’s objections about his logic regarding God’s will?

7. In “The Shivering,” what is it about the events in Nigeria that have Ukamaka so upset?

8. In “The Arrangers of Marriage,” what was it that Chinaza liked about the markets in Enugu?

9. In “The Shivering,” what is it that brings Chinedu to Ukamaka’s apartment?

10. In “The Shivering,” what causes Ukamaka’s shivering?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Adichie represent white people in The Thing Around Your Neck? Are they painted with the same brush, or are they each individuals, with their own lives and characteristics? What generalizations do Adichie’s stories support? What generalizations do they undermine? Cite examples from the stories.

Essay Topic 2

What is the roles available to women in The Thing Around Your Neck? How are women portrayed? What kinds of choices do they get to make, and what is kept from them? How do they live within or rebel against these limits? How would you evaluate Adichie’s depiction of women in this collection of short stories? How are their roles and knowledge and behavior distinguished from the male characters?

Essay Topic 3

When is The Thing Around Your Neck most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,007 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample