A Single Story Analysis

In her 2009 TED talks presentation,” The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains how a single story presented by the media and books can affect the way a person may perceive others, places, and cultures (Adichie). Adichie is the daughter of a professor and an administrator from a middle-class family born in Nigeria. As soon as she began to write she believed her stories needed to contain foreigners that lived a diverse life, but discovered African books that changed her perspective on literature. She goes into details explaining her point through personal experiences where she falsely misunderstood someone based on a single word she heard

There is more to know about a person besides the single story that most people believe is true. A single story is something we hear about another person, culture, or where they are from. This can lead to critical misunderstanding of how their lives actually are. In the book, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. His writing makes sure that most of his characters don't fit into the group of having one single story this is how.

Popular culture is often a reflection of society; both literature and the media have the capacity to cement ideas in the minds of readers and viewers. In many cases, the notions and stories glorified by the media refrain from sharing a true depiction of society and are narrow-minded in their focus. Recently, the feminist movement has denounced popular culture for its ignorance, fighting for a more realistic portrait to be painted by those with the power to reach millions. Specifically, both Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” share how the classic gender stereotypes seen in popular culture are unable to capture the full spectrum of stories that define society, and are limiting in their portrayals of women. Moreover, both authors share personal stories, reference prominent world figures, and cite relevant statistics in their works. Therefore, in both Bad Feminist and “The Danger of a Single Story”, Roxane Gay and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie appeal to readers pathos, logos, and ethos in order to construct the argument that the single story of women in popular culture is stereotypical and restrictive.

Ever since Hunter Jordan died, Ruth and James were heavily affected. In order to combat this, they both use different ways to grieve over his death. To begin, Ruth, James’ mother, rides her bike to grieve for her husbands death. To show proof, James says, “She would ride in slow motion across our street… It was her way of grieving,” (7). As one can see James believes his mother rides her bicycle to grieve for her deceased husband. In addition, James also notes, “it was something [the bike] my stepfather found on the street in Brooklyn and hauled home a few months before he died.” (5). To explain, James says that his stepfather found the bike and brought it to Ruth a few months before he died, so Ruth uses it to remind her of her husband. Furthermore, another way Ruth grieves is in church. James says, “she would occasionally do something in church that I never saw her do at home… she would bow down her head and weep.” (50). As one can see, Ruth cries in church to grieve for her husband because if her kids see her, they would think she is crying because God makes her happy.

“Share our similarities,celebrate our differences.” by M. Scott Peck.When authors write about their lives, what do they expect? David Burkowski, the author of “A Shot Story” was such an author. David had a very stressful life. At the end of his life, he reached his goal which was success. David faced a lot of hardships but he still understood the positive aspects to his life. As years passed, David turned his life into a story so just like Peck’s quote, David wanted people to share the similarities and celebrate the differences. Today, readers like me read David’s story and ask “How can I relate this to myself?”

These stories deliver examples of Ethos throughout Adichie’s speech. Her roommate was impressed by how well she spoke English, “She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language (Adichie, 4:12)”. At this moment she realized that her roommate had conducted her own single stories about her because she came from Africa. She felt her roommate was feeling pity towards her as if Adichie was less fortunate because of where she came from. It’s similar to her first assumptions of Fide’s family unable to do anything because of their poverty.

With your AARP reference, you may find this funny. One of my takeaways was also looking for the motive in the article I read. I am fairly certain this one I am going to reference was to gain trust and your membership to the AARP magazine.

“My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says during her TedTalk on “The Dangers of a Single Story.” There is more to the story, however, not all of Africa is in need yet from all the advertisements we see every day about them, as one thing repeatedly that is what they become. The popular movie “The Birth of a Nation” released in 1915 perpetuates this by exaggerating stereotypes of African Americans showing them as animalistic and drunks. Adichie warns us how media like Birth of a Nation affects the single story while the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee tells us how protagonist Scout learns to put herself in others’ shoes as she grows up. These all answer why the single story is so dangerous, it emphasizes how we are different rather than similar.

Adichie brings to light a very important problem in our society. In her speech she talks about the dangers of having a single story for a person or group of people. She told a story of her houseboy who did the chores around the house for them. All she knew about the boy was that he was poor. Later when she visited his family’s house she was shocked to find out that his family could actually make things like artwork or crafts. She had a single story of the boy that he was poor and knew nothing else. Because of this she assumed that he and his family were not capable of making anything beautiful or creative. She learned that there was so much more to that family than what her single story led her to believe.

Why do stories matter? Stories matter because they can provide inspiration, and spark changes, can change peoples lives. In this essay reasons will be proved why stories are important. In paragraph one the essay will show how stories inspire people. Paragraph two will prove how they spark changes to peoples lives and paragraph three will prove how the changes effect peoples daily lives. While reading this essay it may change your own opinion on stories.

The article, “The Danger of a Single Story”, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, demonstrates the detrimental effect of a single story. Obviously, the speaker undertakes a sort of things, which makes her more objective and practical. Firstly, the author becomes more objective. During her trip in Mexico, “[She] [has] bought into the single story of Mexicans and [she] [can] not have been more ashamed of [herself].” (Page 4, paragragh21), proves the ashamed impression that the author experiences, which teach author to think in a different point of view instead of believing a single story. Secondly, when “Here [is] a woman”, who represents as a “part of the ordinary masses of Nigerians who [are] not supposed to be readers.”, comes to discuss about the

I chose The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It’s easy how people, places, and things are perceived as something they are not only because of a single story. One story is sometimes all it takes to either destroy something or create something great. It’s truth that people only look at one side of the story, even I am guilty of that crime. Ms. Adichie story inspired me to look beyond a single story because there is always another side. What you hear is not always the truth. Do not always take what you hear and run with it without exploring. If we reject a single story we will have a different outlook on things.

As stated earlier, her first example was when she told of learning to read from books that were of an Anglo-Saxon culture. Another example was her stereotyped opinion of Fide, the family's house boy. Because he was poor, his mother created an enormous pity for him in her young mind, and Adichie's young mind was not capable of understanding and separating poor from simple. Only when she visited Fide's village did she realize that poor does not mean ugly, as she discovers in the beautifully patterned basket his brother had made. Another anecdote that Adichie tells further explains how a single story perpetuates stereotyping is explained when she left Nigeria to go to the United States.

First of all, I want to state my interest in this single-story issue, because I has been exposed to it from the History course I took last semester. Single-story is basically information or story we trust because the information had been taught for years. So, when it comes to single-story, the truth is not about the real events or history, but more to the common information we share and believe for years. I believe single-story is a pretty common issue in our live and since we are very accustomed with them, we do not realize the effect of believing solely in single-story. However, I find that single-story is not the only problem we have when we try to deal with history or events in the past. I also think that perspective have great influence in creating the story. As an event usually involve more than one side, there are more than one perspective can be built upon the event. Nevertheless, we usually only stick on one side of the perspective and believing it 100 percent, so it is indirectly limiting our information about the event. That’s why I believe single-story and single-perspective is very related and both bring the same disadvantages.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s "Danger of a Single Story" explores how individuals misinterpret information based on one side of a story, such as stereotyping and judging others. She discusses the lives of Americans and Nigerians in depth, by explaining what society thinks of each nationality.