Lacking a wider variety of stories on any given topic can lead to dangerous misconceptions and casual racism. In her TED Talk, The Danger of a Single Story, Ms. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award winning Nigerian novelist and public speaker, uses personal encounters with the effects of a single story to normalize her experiences with her audiences so that they may internalize them and act upon them easier. Ms. Adichie's use of pathos, as well as her comedic tone and understanding of who her audience is makes it significantly easier for her to accomplish the aforementioned goal.
From her tone to her stories, Ms. Ngozi Adichie effectively uses Pathos to convince her audience to act on her point. Her examples of how people misjudged her and her country’s people due to a lack of multiple points of view on their part and how she has personally been affected by the problem leaves the audience with a burst of emotions that leaves them more likely to understand her problem. When she tells her audience of the contrasting stories of excellence and tragedy that the people of Nigeria experience, it helps the audience to better emotionally understand the consequences for both parties of falling for the single story.
When the truth hurts we tell a joke, and Ms. Adichie does just that. She develops a rather comedic sense throughout her discussion through her stories and references that becomes a powerful tool in her arsenal. Comedy allows its user to provide social critique with little
Pathos is another word for sympathy. In the speech “People and Peace, not Profits and War,” Chisholm states in lines 5-8, “As a teacher, and as a woman, I do not think I will ever understand what kind of values can be involved in spending $9 billion -- and more, I am sure -- on elaborate, unnecessary, and impractical weapons when several thousand disadvantaged children in the nation’s capital get nothing” (39). Chisholm uses pathos to show her feelings about the children. In his Vietnam speech, Martin Luther King Jr. states, “We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation’s only non communist revolutionary political force, the unified Buddhist Church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men” (156). King uses pathos so that the readers agree with his opinions on the Vietnam War. In “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes, he calls himself the farmer, the worker, the negro, and the people (1). Hughes wants people to realize how unfortunate he is and he wants people to sympathize with his feelings. Pathos triggers the reader’s emotions. They begin to sympathize with whoever is displaying their feelings. Authors may use this device to help the readers see the situation in their point of
During the Ted talk video, I realized that the single stories we carry can be harmful as they often lead us to make inaccurate conclusions resulting in stereotyping. In the video, Adichie explains how her roommate
Pathos: Adichie’s also displays strongly her emotions as she shares multiple stories with her audience like the story of the helper who was a little boy with a very poor family and had nothing. She also utilizes humor to make her point on the essence of stereotyping by telling the story of her room-mate who felt pity for her before even seeing her, just because she was African. Since the speech is mostly a narration from her life, Adichie includes emotions as she talks so that the audience gets to feel what she feels.
In July 2009, at a TED conference, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian author, gave a stunning speech about “the Danger of a Single Story”. In her speech, she mentioned about negative consequences happening when people tend to form stereotypes based on a single story, the one-sided argument. The single story blindfolds our eyes and prevents us from seeing the complexity, diversity, and similarities that construct our world, just as Adichie says “these negative stories is to flatten my experience and overlook the many other stories that formed me” (12:56). Listening to all her own personal experience and argument, I have become fully convinced and also see myself reflected in her stories. The single story can cause underlying and harmful impacts not only on personal issues but also on the global scale.
The Danger of a Single Story - A speech that was said by Chimamanda Adichie that inspired me to write this report.
Pathos helps the readers get more motivated to try and bring about a change, because they aren’t satisfied with the way things are. Chavez states that “We know that it cannot be more important than one human life” and “the burdens of generations of poverty and powerlessness lie heavy in the fields of America”. The use of pathos helps the readers see and realize that violence is not the answer, that violence destroys and they feel they need to help this cause. Pathos gets the audience to feel the authors emotions through the essay and want to do something to help. Pathos is used as a motivator and a huge persuasive strategy to get the audience on his audience on his
In Vicki Hearne’s article, some may agree with the argument she makes as her pathos appeal may be sufficient in engaging with the
Malala implements pathos into I Am Malala. Its purpose is to tap into the readers emotions and create empathy for the unfortunate individuals, for example “ There are thousands of oppressed children without an education…”(Yousafzai). Her point is to raise awareness to those blinded to this reality, to do so she uses this emotional appeal to grasp the reader's attention. Many american citizens fail to see what is truly going on beyond our borders. Americans have and still are blind to this reality, this is why malala makes it her mission to raise awareness of the unseen oppressions. Emotional appeal is used plentiful in I Am Malala
Pathos is often employed in an attempt to win over the audience with emotion of some kind. While logos utilizes facts to convince an audience of an argument, pathos is utilized by speakers to entice an audience with their argument. By understanding the use of pathos, I can better understand how emotional appeals affect an intended audience (Lunsford et al. 95).
Once there was a woman who told a story. However, she had more than just an entertaining tale to tell. She chose common images that everyone would understand, and she wrapped her story around them, and in this way she was able to teach the people . . .
How does the writer use language and structure to convey her opinions about The Danger of a Single Story?
It is important to be exposed to others’ stories in any way possible because only then can you get a real feel for who they are. Instead of assuming we know someone based on one story we’ve heard about them, we should talk to them and learn who they truly are and what made them the person they are today. While watching the TED talk, my eyes were opened. I realized that I have stereotyped against others. Just because you know there are people in poverty and without efficient resources in Africa, doesn’t mean every single person is. Also, after reading an article and hearing about the other, I became aware that while reading a book, whether fiction or nonfiction, I put myself in the character’s shoes. I should also put myself in other people’s
Storytelling helps other people to emotionally connect themselves to the author so that they know they are not the only ones who are experiencing a painful or exciting experience, and are able to share the same emotions. It often helps other people to know what they should do in order to get over it when it comes to a painful experience. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings explores the life of Maya Angelou and the struggles she has been throughout her childhood to her adulthood. Richard Wagemese’s Indian Horse explores the life of Saul Indian Horse and the struggles he has been through after departing from his family. The power of storytelling can unfold questions which ask the audience of how and why are the events are unfold the
From the TED Talk video “The Danger of a Single Story,” I think that the speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wanted to tell us that we need to read more and know different stories about one place because there are more than one story exist. We should not judge other without knowing themselves. Furthermore, she said that we should not easily believe everything we heard from media because they only give us one impression. I especially felt close to her when she described how she felt after she realized her American roommate teetered her as African not Nigerian. (4:13) Moreover, she had only a single story about Africa. (4:49) Those paragraph remind me when I was in college in New York, my American classmates did not know the differences between Japanese and Chinese or
They way stories are told may morph, but never will storytelling cease. From their people skills to their memories, there is no argument that storytellers possess boundless talent and intelligence. They were the first educators. And now, storytelling is a large part of everyday life. The news in the morning, the gossip throughout the day, the casual response to the casual “What’s up?” – It’s all a form of storytelling. Our lives are steeped in it. In almost every conversation a story is told. At every turn a story is born. So we all are storytellers, and the world is our audience, just waiting to hear the gospel leave our