The Danger Of A Single Story By Adichie Analysis

If asked who you were, most people would hesitate and sort through millions of words just to find a few that could describe them perfectly. I am different, I cannot be defined by an adjective or noun. I am defined by my culture, experience, knowledge and the list goes on. Everything that happens to me on regular basis contributes to my identity. Since I was a young girl I was fortunate enough to take a vacation every year that luxury came with plenty of experience that I was oblivious to. One of my most memorable vacations would be, my trip to Trinidad and Tobago. I was about ten or eleven years old, I thought that everyone around the world was given the same opportunities as me, but it was there that I realized outside of the United States …show more content…
We portray people differently from what we may actually know. Simply, because we cannot personally identify with some of the experiences of those around us. When we hear anything from only one perspective, we risk falling victim to accepting one experience as the whole truth. Chimamanda Adichie does an excellent job at explaining that in her speech The Danger of a Single Story. When she says “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete,” we see that she encourages her audience to seek diverse perspectives. For example, during her childhood she writes of things which she could not personally relate. The characters in her stories were blue eyed children playing in the snow. She did not have blue eyes and she had never even seen snow before. She had wanted to be like these children because they were more commonly displayed in …show more content…
I am an afro-Caribbean woman in a predominantly white but diverse institution. From time to time I encounter people who close doors in my face, move or hide all of their belongs when they see me coming, or even cross the street if we are on the same side together. These people have preconceived notions that I am a threat to them. This would bother me because it made me feel like an outcast, but it has helped me to build my confidence. These encounters have taught me to hold my head high no matter what and not allow anyone to make me feel as though I am inferior. It no longer affects me because I know that some people don’t know any better, and the only way to change their perception is to show them that I am not what they think I am. Many would say that being a female is also a disadvantage, but I totally disagree I feel like being a woman just gives me the drive and determination to work even harder because as a woman there are barriers that I must destroy in order to make it to the top and for some that might be intimidating, for me it is challenge, braking societal norms. For example, majority of women around the world work in service related