How Is America Presented In The Thing Around Your Neck

In both “Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri and in “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americans are characterized in different ways. In “Third and Final Continent,” Lahiri characterizes Americans as being patriotic, accepting, and a little unfriendly. These traits are perfectly encapsulated in the first American that Lahiri has the protagonist meet; an 100 year old woman named Mrs. Croft. Croft is patriotic because she keeps bringing up the moon landing saying, “There is an American flag on the moon! (Lahiri, 179)” And she commands the protagonist to acknowledge that fact. She is also commanding, which comes off as a little cold. She says things like, “Say ‘splendid’!” and “Go see the room!” In the end, when the protagonist brings his wife, Mala, to Croft and Croft does not care about her traditional Indian garb, but rather looks at her and says that she is, “a perfect lady.” This shows that Croft did not care about their Indian heritage. This is also shown by the fact that she even let the protagonist rent a room. In “The Thing Around Your Neck,” Adichie characterizes Americans as being ignorant. Throughout the story, Adichie seems to be annoyed by how little Americans know about Africa.

This point is encapsulated well by this excerpt, “Many people at the restaurant asked when you had come from Jamaica, because they thought that every black person with a foreign accent was from