A Rhetorical Analysis Of Chimamanda Adichie

Many people fall victim to stereotypes regarding different people and religions. The intent is not to judge others, but exposure and stories unfortunately compel one to do so. News coverage, articles, and even music brainwash the public, forcing people to think a certain way about specific subjects. This leads to assumptions, half-truths, and stereotypes when a story is passed on from one to another. The power of stories is strong, and hearing only one concerning people or a nation leads to ignorance. Therefore, one should open his mind and expand his horizons to have an all-round understanding before making a final judgment.
The speaker, Chimamanda Adichie, begins by telling a story about what she would write about as a child. She would write similar stories to the foreign, westernized ones she read which contained white skinned children with blue eyes. She was confined

Those stories we receive shape certain emotions towards the people that live in those places. Adichie gives an experience of her own about the single story of the debates about immigration in the United States. Immigration in America translated in people’s minds to Mexicans sneaking across the border. When Adichie visited Guadalajara she was a bit surprised to see Mexicans differently than the stereotypical immigrants she expected them to be. She goes to say, “show people as one thing and one thing only over and over again and that is what they become.” That is the consequence of the single story about a person, place, or issue. A single story robs people of dignity and emphasizes how different people are. By engaging with all the stories of a person, place, or issue, the trap of a single story can be avoided. Adichie eventually looked at the Mexican and the U.S. side of the immigration issue, balancing the stories and not falling into the trap of the single