Flawless Adichie Analysis

I was familiar with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s work through Beyonce’s song “Flawless.” Challenging social norms appears to be a reoccurring theme in Adichie’s work. In “Flawless,” Adichie questioned gender roles, and in “The Danger of a Single Story” she challenged the public to look beyond a single perspective. As simple as it may be to propose, the reality is not as straightforward. We are indirectly or bet yet directly products of our environment. This should not to be used as an excuse, but as many stories go, the truth is not always as black and white. Movies and television present a medium of information that exceeds the TV-listing. I judged what “normal” was from the characters on the screen. Like Adichie, it was an egg hunt finding programming that featured people who looked like me (at least in a positive light). I found myself stumbling on shows like “The Cosby Show,” “Maury,” and “Fresh Prince of Bel-air” that provided a broad comedic twist to life as a Black American. There were occasional overlapping themes that simultaneously broke and reinforced certain stereotypes. This was all okay because the shows provided a platform to address those stereotypes. Adichie mentioned that stereotypes where both revealing and incomplete. A stereotype may be perceived as humorous, however, it may rob a person of

Similar can be said about articles about immigration. Portraying immigration as a catastrophic event may be just as dangerous as seeing it as a completely advantageous endeavor. There is possibly an unavoidable forced perspective given the author’s personal experience and/or relationship with an immigrant. The question then becomes: how do we extend our viewpoint? So far engaging with different types of literature has given me a better outlook on the situation. Conversely, it may also be helpful to carefully observe points of opposing