The Danger Of A Single Story Analysis

It would be a story that was passed down from the family, one she made up, or a book that she got off of the bookshelf. Dr. Seuss, Clifford The Big Red Dog any children’s book we had. Looking back on it there was all ways a moral to a story that she read to me. There was never a time that you couldn’t take a good value away from one of the stories. As I moved up in grade level the books started to become deeper and deeper. Throughout school there was always something to read. There was “Dr. Seuss” in elementary school, “The Diary of Anne Frank” in middle school, and “Romeo and Juliet” in high school, Literacy was all ways present in my school life. Throughout all the book reports, and the note taking and analyzing of Shakespeare literature there is without a doubt that my literacy knowledge has grown thanks to learning I have done in school. I feel that we learn to read and write because we have that desire inside to want to succeed and we know that it all starts here with learning to read and write. With all of that being said I say the way in which my literacy skills have developed to this point all started with bedtime stories. I think that this was the first start in most kids life and this is where we learn the basics. A book full of words in which we thought were just pictures and symbols with no meaning to them at all. Soon we learned that words did have meanings and that

As human beings, we tend to not understand that what we see or hear about social media, television, books, etc. can guide us towards this one piece of the puzzle. Not knowing the rest of the puzzle creates the assumption of a single story. In her TED talk, Chimamanda Adichie has spoken about the dangers of only knowing a story which leads to stereotyping. By this being said, to what extent do we as a society form a single story about others? To answer this question, there is a great extent when people create their single stories about others because we make these single stories without even realizing it. Chimamanda is a mere example, a representative of how our society thinks and is treated  when making a single

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.

The danger of a single story is that they let the powerful downgrade the weaker because they create stereotypes, they can hurt the people, and no one gets represented from the culture.

From a scientific perspective, memory is not a reliable source. Although the big picture might be accurately recalled, the specifics of the event often lose its precision as time progresses. In addition, human memories often vary because of differences in interpretation, beliefs, and values. As a result, it would not be surprising if Jeannette Walls remembered events differently from her siblings. For example, since “Maureen always had plenty to eat” (Walls 173) and “was more or less living with neighbors” (Walls 249), she likely views life in Welch more positively compared to her siblings. Further, one person may think an event was more significant than another. Even though Jeannette’s story may not be completely accurate, it is truthful in her perspective. In other words, since Jeanette believes that her memory is accurate, then she is being truthful. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men…” (Emerson 1).

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.

A single story is a limited viewpoint. A single story reduces cultures and people into a simple stereotype.

The Danger of a Single Story - A speech that was said by Chimamanda Adichie that inspired me to write this report.

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.

As a derivative of language, stories help to combine key aspects of wisdom so we can continue to improve greatly as a species. The third group discussed how our stories are a reflection of who we are, whether personal or general as explored in Thomas King`s essay `The Truth About Stories`. In particular, they are used to define our identity as we attach ourselves to characters that are exhibited in similar circumstances. Furthermore, personal stories render us in a state of vulnerability so we can question cryptic thoughts that are not recognized often. As said by group 3, “Stories help to escape, comfort and answer questions”. General stories such as the theory of creation help establish societies and environments by providing meaning to our existence. King highlights the importance of strategic storytelling by informing the reader to “not confuse strategy with sophistication” as the significance of the truth can be

With the insight and humble words of Chimamanda Adichie, I have learned that a “single story” is how you define somewhere, someone or something. Ignorance steps into control and you begin to develop the beliefs and the opinions you have, though, you may only have a brief encounter with the subject. This can cause a lot of confusion and anger. Ultimately, the disappointing truth is that judging this way is human nature. We continue to be both the perpetrator and the victim of this; including myself.

Brandon Sanderson, one of my favourite science fiction authors once said, ““The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” (Sanderson, 2010). This was a saying that stuck with me throughout my love and passion not just for storytelling but art in general. The beautiful thing about art is that it creates a sense of emotion that you can interpret the meaning for yourself; there is no right or wrong answer. Whenever I am reading poetry or a novel, what I love most is that it makes my imagination go wild. I create an idea of what their voices sound like, what the characters look like, the setting, etc. Whenever I’m reading or listening to someone telling me a story I get to create my own art piece in my mind which I think as humans is one thing that makes us so unique is our abstract mind and the use of an conscious imagination.

In the video “The Danger of a Single Story” on TED Talk published July 2009, the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie agues that stereotypes are often created by the single stories and it is hard to see the real story when people only know about the single stories. When Adichie was a child, she read the Western literature from America and England, and once she started to write her own story, she wrote the story as similar as her books. As she got older, she realized that the characters does not have to be like her books and the characters can be like her after she read African literature. She also realized that her roommate believed a stereotypes story of Africa so that when Adichie told her that she was from Nigeria, she had felt sorry

Stories are told through various forms of literature, and the overall point of telling a story is to convey a message, a meaning that the author wants the reader to interpret and understand. The author does

Short stories can share themes, motifs, symbols, consequences, and plot lines, even if there is never any intention to share a common element between the stories. The stories can be written close together or in different decades and still be linked to the one another. They can also be worlds apart with different meanings in the end, but that does not stop them from having similar ideas expressed within them. The following three stories, “Lagoon” by Joseph Conrad, “The Rocking Horse Winner” by DH Lawrence, and “The Lady in the Looking Glass” by Virginia Woolf, are three totally different stories that share common threads that make them the stories that they are.