The Danger Of A Single Story Analysis

Improved Essays
In “The Danger of a Single Story,” the author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, uses her speech and life story of growing up in Nigeria to examine stereotypes of cultures around the world. Adichie 's purpose of writing this speech was to show the dangers of a single story and how knowing only one story about an entire race of people is dangerous as it creates a negative connotation about that culture. It seems as though Adichi is presenting stereotypes to readers by explicitly describing their negatives, but actually, Adichi is uncovering the implicit dangers in stereotypes.
Adichi explains how literature has the power to put danger in a single story. One example of this is how she blames the single stories of Africa on “Western Literature” (6:34).
…show more content…
One example of this was her stereotyped opinion of Fide, the family 's house boy. Because he was poor, Adichi’s mother created an enormous pity for him in her young mind (2:58). Adichi states, “All I had heard about them was how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them” (3:45). Adichie 's young mind was not capable of understanding and separating poor from simple so she assumed that Fide was uneducated and was without skill. Only when she visited Fide 's village did she realize that poor does not mean ugly, as she discovers in the beautifully patterned basket his brother had made (3:42). By using this anecdote, Adichi has shown how certain circumstances create incorrect pity for a culture, as in Adichie 's pity for Fide because of his poverty. Adichi’s brain is quick to make a judgement of Fide because he is underprivileged. The danger in this situation is when Adichi applied this stereotype beyond the quick judgement. The immediate judgement of Fide was quick to become a single story. Then, this single story expands and becomes multiple stories. Now, Fide is not only poor, but uneducated, and will never be successful. What if Adichi had never visited Fide and found out his family was very crafty? The multiple stories of poor people would continue to …show more content…
She tells how her American roommate had stereotyped her, assuming she wouldn 't speak English well and that her choice of music would be tribal (4:12). With this anecdote, Adichi is proving to readers that stereotypes are not intended to harm because they come from ignorance, but the continuation of generations believing stereotypes is what is harmful. People need to be aware of how single stories are "not...untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story." (12:56). What Adichi is meaning with this quote is that some aspects of stereotypes are true, but they do not represent people as an entirety. When Adichi’s roommate seen that she was from Nigeria, she automatically linked her to tribal music, as if there is no such thing as country, hip-hop, or rap music in Nigeria (4:12). Tribal music is part of Nigerian culture, but it does not represent all Nigerians. This single story is like a pizza. When someone hears the word ‘pepperoni’ they link it to pizza, as if there is no such thing as a single pepperoni. A pepperoni, though, is part of a pizza, but pepperonis do not represent the entire pizza as a whole; there is crust, sauce, cheese, and other toppings as well. If generations to come do not begin to realize people as individuals, stereotypes will continue stealing one’s

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    A single story can be a devastating thing, not because it does not tell the truth, but that it only tells parts of the truth. Entire voices and experiences are erased in the face of a broad explanation, which is often easier to understand through its one-sided simplicity. The single story manifests itself through society in the form of harmful stereotypes of racial, ethnic, national and religious groups. However, literature allows us the opportunity to inspect and understand the way a single story can affect the actions and experiences of a set of characters, through understanding what they feel and how they react. Through the texts Atonement, by Ian McEwan, Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harry Potter…

    • 2462 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    During her TED talk, Adichie gave a variety of examples of this happening throughout her life. As a child, she would read American and British books since African literature was uncommon. Because of this, she believed that it was completely normal for stories to have foreigners who she could not identify with. When she was in college, Adichie’s roommate thought she did not know how to use the stove and listened to tribal music because she was African. Single stories are actually quite prevalent in today’s society.…

    • 1379 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The past has resounding effects on the present, just as the present has tremendous effects on the future, but no one can tell how these effects might unfold. For example, when the white people first came to Canada, the Indians could never have anticipated what horror they would cause, but this horror has carried on even until today. Authors W. P. Kinsella, Yves Theriault, and Sherman Alexie are just a few of the many people to have illustrated the hate and prejudice that these horrors have caused. Throughout the short story “Lark Song”, Kinsella discusses the major contrast between the paranoia of the whites and the welcoming nature of the Indians. Similarly, Theriault explores in his short story “Akua Nuten” the sense of bitterness that Indians…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Stereotype’s Resistance to the Effects of Time Interactions between two drastically different cultures offer the potential to breed negative outcomes. When discussing these negative outcomes, stereotypes would be a prime example because a lack of effort in understanding another culture can produce conventional images. Considering this, Drew Hayden Taylor explores the stereotypes directed against native women in his play “Dead White Writer on the Floor”. In Taylor’s play, Pocahontas’ unique construction as a consistently stereotyped character offers a criticism of how stereotypes labeling native women as dependent alter the situation they cannot save themselves from but, endure over time.…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “[A single story] emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.” -Chimamanda Adichie This is the danger of the single story. It causes us to think very stereotypically about others, which makes you think very poorly about other people. In America there are many stereotypes about all kinds of people, black, white, asian, hispanic, the list goes on and on.…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When individuals have a limited point of view about another person or country, they tend to overlook the underlying and meaningful stories that lie within that group or place. In her Ted talk, “The Danger of a Single Story”, Chimamanda Adichie describes this concept as a single story. Assuming someone's life or way of being simply based off of a single story leads to stereotyping and misunderstanding. In the article "Critical Race Methodology: Counter-Storytelling as an Analytical Framework for Education" authors Daniel G. Solorzano and Tara J. Yosso explain that those living in the margins of society could potentially resist these single stories by telling others of their own unprecedented experiences. Reyna Grande's memoir, "The Distance…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    "Danger of a Single Story" explains how the exposure of stereotypes at a young age can affect one's perspective of things later on in life. Adiche, from the beginning, told of her experiences with the 'danger of a single story'. "All I heard about them [Fide's family] was how poor they were so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them." Adiche is trying to say that all she ever heard about Fide's family was how poor they were, how they have nothing, so when she was shown the basket that was made out of dyed raffia that Fide's brother had made, she was shocked.…

    • 171 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. Conflict theorists focus on power struggle within culture. How does power influence the single story? Power is a big influence in the Danger of a Single Story. I feel power influences not only culture but also people.…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Danger Of A Single Story

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Speaker for the TED Talk on “The Danger of a Single Story” is a native of Nigeria, a country within the continent of Africa, her name is Chimamanda Adichie. She starts out her speech reminiscing on her childhood, during which she divulges her love for reading and writing at an early age. She had been conditioned with the basis of her seemingly normal life, far from stereotypical misconceptions involving countries of Africa. It is not until the speaker moves to the United States that she realizes how dangerous the single story of her people could have been.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    In order for others to understand our intended actions, our opinions and reasons must be acknowledged. A story told with only one point of view, a single story, can result in a conflict or possible confusion, as seen in Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe. Inspired to write a book from the point of view of a true African, Achebe follows the Umuofia tribe as the evangelists seeking to convert others to Christianity threaten their much-cherished Igbo culture. Throughout the book, Achebe follows the point of view of the Igbo people. It is not until the last chapter that we begin to see a shift in the point of view.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The 1960’s was a period of new mindsets. The Civil Right’s movement was occurring; people all over the country were beginning to see African Americans as humans instead of property. They were beginning to immerse into the general population. Segregation was finally coming to an end. However, some people were still unwilling to believe that African Americans should be tolerated as equally as Caucasians.…

    • 1394 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    "The Danger of a Single Story:" Limiting Women 's Past, Present, & Future: "Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. " In her TED talk "The Danger of a Single Story," author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes the racial and socioeconomic stereotypes that create a "single story" or dominant narrative of peoples ' lives and obscure other possible stories. She focuses mainly on single stories created because of racial stereotypes, but single stories also are apparent with gender. Much of the history of humanity has suffered from an unequal power ratio based on gender; this has created and still creates many different "single stories.…

    • 1922 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Importance Of Ignorance

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages

    If you went to a restaurant and sat in a seat, would you want to know if someone had thrown up in the seat that you were sitting in? Would you rather be told something that could possibly hurt you, or never know about it and stay safe? I believe that ignorance is not bliss because ignorance leads to a single perspective, knowledge can save people's lives, and something that is not known can hurt a person. One thing that ignorance gives rise to is a single perspective. When people do not have the knowledge of the other cultures in the world, then they become ignorant.…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For example, she conveys that it is dangerous because it promotes stereotypes and deprives people of the knowledge of other cultures outside of their own. Consequently, she thoroughly described her own experience with her American roommate at University and stereotypes by referring to what her roommate was taught about Nigerian people: that they were sheltered and unintelligent especially when it came to technology. She also flawlessly pointed out that she was even guilty of believing the single story she knew about the boy who worked for her family and his home life. She knew they were poor, so she assumed that they were also inadequate and untalented in all aspects of their lives. Thus, she was unable to be angry with her American roommate: Adichie realized herself that single story stereotypes was an issue that is wide-spread, not just in certain areas of the…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The problem with these stories is that it tends to inhibit stereotypes and stifle possibilities that the world or people could be any different than they are portrayed. She also states that stereotypes can be true but they are incomplete hence the title “The Danger of a Single Story.” The story seems to have an overarching deeper thought that everyone seems to embrace their initial impressions of something only seeing one part of the equation and that trying to rid yourself of these preconceived notions without background knowledge could be beneficial. Also the speech seems to be diving into the fact that we all give power to certain people without looking at the bigger picture. This being said with power meaning the ability to tell a story of another and make it…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays