The Danger Of A Single Story In 'Breakfast At Tiffany' By Truman Capote

"These writers explore both the social roles that confine them and the bodies that represent the confinement". In light of this quotation, compare how the writers explore gender.

Major Critical Essay In her essay, “Gender”, Myra Jehlin asserts that, assuming gender is a social construct as opposed to biological truth, “the character conventionally assigned men and women in novels reflects history and culture rather than nature” (264). When applied to the characters of Washington Irving’s 1819 short story “Rip Van Winkle”, Rip and Dame Van Winkle are transformed from an expression of the roles men and women naturally fall into, to a reflection of the values and expectations of marriage espoused by the male-dominated society of 19th century America. Jehlen further argues that no works can be considered “timeless nor transcendent” in their message, because the context of a work effects that work in its own indelible way,

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.

We hear of her moving to New York to escape her life as a child bride after being orphaned at a young age. This story allows the audience to gain a sense of sympathy for Holly, and enhances the pathos of the story. This pathos puts the audience into the shoes of Holly and enables them to understand the reasoning behind her escape. The use of language features like pathos and literary allusion allow the authors of both texts to convey the theme of escapism.

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

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.

During the nineteenth and twentieth century there was a number of changes made in America. Woman were looked at as less than back then and to a certain degree they still are today. There was a number of women that died or went insane because of the standards that they had to meet in order to be considered good women. In this research paper I will talk about the experience of the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper and Blanche DuBois from the story A Streetcar Named Desire. It will be shown within these pages how the moral and societal standards for women were far different than they were for men, and how the standards changed over the years. Furthermore it will be shown how this effected the women of those two stories.

The Danger of a Single Story is about having a one sided perspective on different cultures and countries. She explains that she originally had a single story of writing because as a kid, all she had read were children’s books from America or England and all the characters in these books were stereotypical white children. Adichie said that this one and only perspective she had of books reflected on her personal writing as a kid because all of the characters in her stories were stereotypical white children. She goes on to

Explore the presentation of femininity and identity in The Great Gatsby and The Color Purple, considering the contexts of their production, reception and the different ways in which these texts have been read.

Sylvia Plath and Truman Capote throughout their work both create unique individuals with internal and external forces holding them back. In The Bell Jar, we are introduced to Ester who is a young and attractive women in college with a successful path in life but is held back by madness and depression. In Breakfast at Tiffany’s, we are introduced to a unique character who makes up most of the story. We are introduced to Holiday Golightly but is refereed to as “Holly” throughout the story, Holly is the main character of the story and the narrator writes about her life. Holly makes a living as a companion to many wealthy and important men, who lavish her with money and expensive beautiful gifts. The narrator meets Holly when she leaves her husband and moves to New York, throughout her life and the story Holly is extremely unstable and irresponsible. In both, The Bell Jar and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, societal norms and the american dream are major themes that help the readers understand the characters lives and behaviors.

Discuss the ways in which the depiction of gender roles operates in any TWO of the texts studied on this unit.

Characters such as Holly Golightly and Daisy Buchanan are prime examples of women being portrayed as careless and reckless. According to Jay McInerney, “Of all his characters, Capote said, Holly was his favorite, and she has become an icon of American womanhood in the years since he created her” (McInerney). Ms. Golightly

In Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Holly GoLightly battles with a psychological struggle between the basic need for stability and the aspiration for freedom. Throughout the book, Holly is coded as various animals symbolizing her independence. She fears being captured by her feelings of belongingness. Although she may toy with the idea of personal connection through superficial relationships, she ultimately chooses isolation, which she believes, is freedom.

Throughout the history of storytelling, there have always been storybook characters that inspire and motivate young readers to become more engaged and knowledgeable about the struggles that some people go through. Reading has always been a pastime of mine; while reading I collect new friends in wonderful places that otherwise I could only dream of. Each of these characters that I have befriended and connected with over the years, has shaped my personality in some way or another, and choosing just one seems an impossible task. Although women’s rights have skyrocketed in the past century, overall the world is still predominately male-orientated, but the world of books has no bounds for inspirational women. Countless authors have written

Holly is wanderlust. She is the embodiment of a globetrotter. She has a hunger for freedom and it shines through her everyday activities. Holly is disbursed by her need to always escape from places, people and things. Even Holly's identity is in a constant state of change. Holly adopts the name "Holiday Golightly", which summarizes her approach on avoiding stability by making a holiday out of life, and deserting relationships and responsibilities that she feels interfere with her freedom.