In "The American Embassy," this man stands behind the embassy narrator in line at the American embassy. He attempts, unsuccessfully, to engage her in conversation. Though he praises the editors of the democratic press (and unknowingly, the narrator's husband), he seems unwilling to do any hard and dangerous reporting himself.
The man behind her Quotes in The Thing Around Your Neck
The The Thing Around Your Neck quotes below are all either spoken by The man behind her or refer to The man behind her. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Anchor Books edition of The Thing Around Your Neck published in 2009.
The American Embassy
Quotes
Yes, of course. Not all of us can do it. That is the real problem with us in this country, we don't have enough brave people.
Related Characters:
The man behind her (speaker), The American Embassy Narrator
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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The man behind her Character Timeline in The Thing Around Your Neck
The timeline below shows where the character The man behind her appears in The Thing Around Your Neck. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The American Embassy
...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...
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The man behind her taps the embassy narrator and tries to draw her attention to a soldier beating a...
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...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...
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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...
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The man behind her asks the embassy narrator if she's nervous about the visa interview. He instructs her how...
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The man behind her tells the embassy narrator again that asylum visas are hard to obtain. She asks him...
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The embassy narrator confirms with the man behind her that he thinks the editors are brave, and he looks at her suspiciously. She thinks...
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The man behind her begins a conversation with others in line about the need for shade and the corruption...
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