The Thing Around Your Neck

A Nigerian woman, Chinaza, is taken to her new home in New York by her new husband, Ofodile. Unlike the house she expected, it is an apartment. She thinks about how people do not tell you many things when they arrange your marriage, like about empty apartments and husbands who snore. The next morning, they briefly have sex and then she attempts to call her aunt and uncle, who raised her and arranged her marriage, but the line is busy. Her husband is a doctor, and over the course of the morning he continually corrects Chinaza on little things, telling her that in America they must act American. He tells her they go by English names in America, saying he goes by Dave and Chinaza should go by Agatha.

The couple goes grocery shopping, and Chinaza is upset by the lack of familiarity. Dave complains about the residency program he is in and sneers at Nigerian customs as he shows Chinaza around the grocery store. He says that people who do not adapt to American ways of life will never move ahead. Chinaza misses the marketplace back in Enugu. Dave then takes Chinaza to the mall, buying her a piece of pizza and a coat and telling her about the wonders of America.