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Assignment"the danger of a single story" by chimamanda adichie
Assignment"the danger of a single story" by chimamanda adichie
Assignment"the danger of a single story" by chimamanda adichie
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Outline Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie made numerous of valid points in her Ted Talks (2009), The Danger of a Single Story. She enlightened readers that incorrect information can travel through generations and never be corrected. She expressed that one single story is the gateway for judgement, and once you present a person as one thing over and over again that one thing becomes that person. Ms. Adichie explained that a single story creates stereotypes which are incomplete stories. A single story also provides a piece of a story that can be seen as the whole story, which develops misconceptions. Furthermore, it robs people of dignity and shines light on how we as people are different and not similar. Overall, we should educate ourselves so that we
Each day that we live our lives we are faced with the opportunity to believe and tell many stories and dramatizations. As a young child in Hebrew School you were taught that the world was created in six days and on the seventh day God rested. In a Christian home you were told about Saint Nick. On a juvenile level, stories serve a purpose to teach something and to give hope. As adults we continue to tell stories to ease the pain of a subject or to get us through a hard time. A mother that has lost a son in a tragic accident will never be told by the doctor that her son died in pain, but the doctor might say he died peacefully. Tim O'Brien uses storytelling in his book to teach lessons from the war, and to have us understand about the baggage that he and his fellow men had to carry.
“Its like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.” This quote is said by Patrick Rothfuss. In the book, True Notebooks, by Mark Salzman his students tell you many stories that people get to become apart of. Reading stories by other people makes their life more interesting. The power of storytelling is really important, because they have to catch your attention to make you want to hear more. Three stories from the book, True Notebooks, that suck out to me were: “The G Ride”, “Another Screw Up”, and a story without a title by Dale.
Chimamanda Adichie, in one of her eye-opening speeches, The Danger of a Single Story, provides the audience with a new insight into the negative impacts that can occur as a result of viewing a story from a single perspective and not putting in an effort to know it from all available viewpoints. Adichie in her simple, yet well-grounded speech, filled with anecdotes of her personal experiences effectively puts across her argument against believing in stereotypes and limiting oneself to just a single story using a remarkable opening, the elements of logos, pathos and ethos, repetitions, as well as maintaining a good flow of thoughts throughout the speech.
In 2009 Chimamanda Adichie gave a TED talk about the ‘danger of a single story’. A single story meaning, one thought or one example of a person becoming what we think about all people that fit that description, a stereotype if you will. In today’s America, I believe that we have all felt the wave of stereotypical views at some point or another. Adichie gives many relatable examples throughout her life of how she has been affected by the single story. Her story brings about an issue that all humans, from every inch of the earth, have come to understand on some level. A young child reading only foreign books, a domestic helper that she only perceived as poor. Her college roommates single story about Africans and her own formation of a single
The word danger probably makes you want to turn away and stop doing whatever it is that you are doing. Well, what do you do when you see the words, “The Danger of a Single Story?” These words had me nervous about what I was going to be watching. However, there was a lot of information that was explained throughout this 20-minute TED talk from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This paper will explore compelling ideas she mentioned that relate to things I have experienced when I went to another culture, the risks of telling a single story narrative in intercultural interactions, ways to protect myself from single story misconceptions, and how I was able to see how a single story might affect the way I communicate with others in different cultures.
In her TED talk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks through the role of perception in her life and the way that it changes social relationships. We have all had plenty of experiences that surprise us in regard to perception, such as the first time we meet someone from another culture, or meeting someone from our past in a new light. We have been inundated with stereotypes and preconceived notions since we were children, through stories, media, parents, teachers, and friends. Moreover, these presuppositions that we carry are rarely, if ever, based on anything substantial, yet they show up in every aspect of our life. Adichie calls the notion of this one-sided preconceived bias the “single story.” This “single story” is interesting due to the fact that even if we can overcome it, we are still affected by it. Adichie speaks about how even though she had become enlightened to this dilemma, she is still subject to it. As for her experience, she states that,
Watch this Ted Talk, The Danger of a Single Story: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en (Links to an external site.)
A story is the most powerful way to communicate a message and people repeat the same stories over and over to relate to each other and be part of the same shared history. For example, many stories of American slavery have been repeated to inform different generations about the injustices that occurred and allow the different generations to share the same history and experiences. From Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the 1850’s to Alex Haley’s Roots in 1976 and to 12 Years a Slave in 2013, the repeated story of the atrocities of slavery still creates united empathy among its audiences. Stories that get repeated are typically entertaining, informative, have proven success with the audience and is based on what the writer knows.
The purpose of the speech provided by Chimamanda Adichie is to portray the various impacts a single story can have on both an individual and a society. This is because of the usage of stereotypes provided by the media which creates an overall image, that everyone believes to be true. This is prominent when she says “A single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” Having a single story also confines the world to generalized outlooks on cultures, religions and nationalities. Due to this, individuals must seek for diversity and different perspectives, in which everyone should be able to see the world as it is, not just the aspect that the media portrays. Through
Individualism is an essential part of stories, because individuals tell stories. They also add and take out what they want to in the story, like Luo did when he didn’t say in his story (p149) that the seamstress got bit by a snake while swimming for Lou’s keys that he tossed in the water.
Throughout the world, people have always and will always judge each other based on their skin tone, their accent, their home country or other obvious features that we immediately see or hear about them. We often formulate our opinions of these people based on our first impressions of them. In 2009, Civil rights activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie uses her time on her Ted-Talk to deliver her resonating speech “The Danger of a Single Story.” During her world-renowned speech, Adichie discusses human relationships, how we, as humans, interact with one another and treat each other. Adichie establishes her argument with one powerful metaphor describing common stereotypes as ‘single stories’ to demonstrate how people are affected by being judged based
Stereotypes and generalizations have become the easy way to justify the separation of races, classes, and genders. Creating these ideas about the cultures that are different than our own is a dangerous habit that must be broken by this generation so that our children can play in merriment without the fear of being misunderstood on a day to day basis. So as Adiche said in her TED talk, stories matter, and to only pay attention to specific stories of one’s life, is to overlook all of the other formative experiences of life. “The problem with Stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” I charge you, Millennials, to go listen to the stories that fill this world, so that we might better understand the amazing things happening around us each and every
Personal narratives are subconsciously created and used in everyday thinking often unknowingly by the individual. We, as a society, formulate personal narratives based on personal experience, as a way to excuse the behavior or action that we commit(TIME). Similarly, grand narratives are created and believed by a larger group of individuals. Since personal narratives are almost always based on the personal experience this means society is unable to directly understand the motives and thinking process of a specific individual. Because of this, society is commonly quick to judge the personal narratives of others. This theory is repeatedly proven true in the literary works, Fences by August Wilson, “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner and “Facing
The character is emphasising the moral and educational value of stories in human development and understanding by saying that there is always something to learn from stories, even when they are retold repeatedly.
Storytelling provides a way to share unforgettable experiences and valuable information with other people and teach life lessons that could be useful to those who receive t...