The Thing Around Your Neck: The American Embassy Summary & Analysis

The embassy narrator stands outside the American embassy in Lagos. She's the 48th person in line and holds a file of her documents. She stares straight ahead and ignores the newspaper and food vendors. The man behind her asks if she has change, and she tries to focus and tell him no. She tries to keep her mind blank like her doctor told her to—she needs to be alert for her visa interview. She tries to keep her mind blank, but the image of her four-year-old son, Ugonna, falling bloody to the floor keeps popping up.

The man behind her taps the embassy narrator and tries to draw her attention to a soldier beating a man. She turns to look and is reminded of her jump from the balcony. She says nothing to the man, who continues to be friendly. She wonders if he's curious as to why she's not joining in with the camaraderie of those in line, who all woke up early to stand in line at the American embassy and quickly became friends. The man behind her continues to speak about the soldier, but the narrator looks up the street at the market that pops up to sell food, chairs, passport photos, and newspapers to those standing in line.

Two days earlier, the embassy narrator buried Ugonna. The day before, she helped smuggle her husband out of the country. The day before that, life had been normal. The man behind her wonders if the people in the American embassy enjoy watching the soldiers whip people. The narrator tries to keep her mind off Ugonna.

Two days ago, three men had come to the embassy narrator’s home looking for her husband. They put a gun to her head and asked for her husband, and she told them she didn't know where he was. They asked her about the story her husband wrote for the paper. When it seemed like the men were going to leave, Ugonna ran to the narrator, screaming and crying. The men shot him.

The embassy narrator refuses an orange from the man behind her. Her head hurts and she thinks about her jump from the balcony. When she heard the gun go off and saw Ugonna fall, she told herself that it was palm oil and he was playing a game. As the three men deliberated as to what to do, she jumped off the balcony and hid in the garbage bin. After the men had left, she went back to the apartment and held Ugonna's body.

The man behind her asks the embassy narrator if she's nervous about the visa interview. He instructs her how to nail the interview. The narrator remembers all the people who told her to tell her interviewer about Ugonna so she'd get an asylum visa. The man asks the narrator what kind of visa she's getting, and she tells him she's asking for an asylum visa. She wonders if the man knows about her husband and thinks that if he reads The New Nigeria he probably does. Her husband had been the first to write about the coup and call it a sham. He'd been arrested for two weeks and when he was released, he and the narrator had a party to celebrate.

The man behind her tells the embassy narrator again that asylum visas are hard to obtain. She asks him if he reads The New Nigeria. He does, and he praises the bravery of the editors. The narrator thinks that the editors are selfish, not brave, and remembers her husband skipping a family trip to conduct an important interview. When they returned from their respective trips, they spoke to each other only about Ugonna, which is most of what they talked about anyway.

The embassy narrator confirms with the man behind her that he thinks the editors are brave, and he looks at her suspiciously. She thinks about telling him about her own journalism, which she gave up when she finally became pregnant. She turns away and watches the beggars. She doesn't see The New Nigeria on the closest newspaper stand, and thinks about her husband's latest article. It hadn't worried her because it was only a compilation of the killings and failings of the government. However, a few days after it came out, someone on the radio had praised her husband.

Her husband had tried to act as though he wasn't nervous, but he soon received an anonymous call saying the head of state was angry and he was going to be arrested for the last time. The embassy narrator had driven her husband to a coeditor's house and he'd made it to Benin. The plan was for him to apply for asylum in New York, and for the narrator and Ugonna to join him at the end of the school term. Ugonna had been restless that night, and the narrator let him stay up. She wished she'd sent him to bed when the three men burst in.

The man behind her begins a conversation with others in line about the need for shade and the corruption of the American embassy. The embassy narrator gives money to a couple of blind beggars and they bless her with money, a husband, and a job. She thinks they didn't bless her with children. The embassy opens and asks for the first 50 in line, and the man behind remarks on their luck.

The embassy narrator's interviewer asks the narrator for her story. The narrator thinks of Ugonna and looks at the man interviewing next to her. She realizes she'd rather die before talking about Ugonna in exchange for a visa. She tells the interviewer that her son was killed, but doesn't offer any other details. The interviewer asks how the narrator knows that her son was killed by the government, and asks for proof that the narrator isn't safe in Nigeria. The narrator says she buried the evidence—her son's body—the day before. The interviewer offers her condolences and says that the United States offers "a new life" but needs proof.

The embassy narrator thinks that Ugonna gave her a new life. She thinks she wants to go home and plant flowers on Ugonna's grave. The narrator looks again at the man next to her, whose interview is going badly. The interviewer tries to get the narrator's attention, but the narrator gets up and walks out of the embassy.