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The Single Story Illustrated In John Hersey's Novel

Decent Essays

As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once said, "the consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar." Single stories have been a part of the human history since the very first day. People start wars because they don’t bother to hear both sides of the story. They judge each other because they don’t know the other side of the story. This is the case with the dropping of the bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the second World War. Most of the American civilians supported the dropping of the bomb until John Hersey wrote the novel Hiroshima. This novel depicted the viewpoint of the Japanese which was never discussed in the before the book. The world had only seen that the bomb had ended the war, …show more content…

On the other hand, the more patriotic viewpoint of the debate at the time was that the dropping of the bomb was beneficial to saving American lives as well as lessened the number of additional casualties. This novel was able to show the viewpoint of the Japanese. The hardships, the health, and the ever lasting effect on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were able to diminish some of the pride people had in the bomb. One specific example that truly caught the attention of the readers was Mrs. Nakamura. In a flash of light, her house was mere ruins and her most of her family was killed. She was left as a single mother supporting her family in the worst of economy by taking the oddest of jobs. Most people were ignorant of the fact of how they affected civilian lives, not just soldiers. Hersey used the characters and the story to convey his viewpoint of the atomic bomb and helped develop the understanding of the situation for many

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