In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TedTalk she discusses the impact of the "single story." Adichie talks about a single story and says how it can make someone think something that is not true. She talks about an experience at a university where she was speaking. Adichie tells the audience, “a student told me that it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had just read a novel called American Psycho and that it was such a shame that young Americans were serial murderers” (TED 10:51). If everyone thought that what they read in books were true the look on things would be very different then how it actually is. The one college student that told her that it's a shame that every dad beats his kids is a good example, not every dad does but because she/he read it in a book they thought it was the fact and it couldn't be false. There are many different stories that make people change how they think about things. …show more content…
The only thing her mother told her about him was that his family was very poor. One day, when Adichie went to visit the boy’s family she learned an important lesson.Adichie says, “I was startled. It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. 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” (TED 3:42)Adichie only thought of his family as poor because that was all she knew. If people went off of what they only knew and not of what they could learn and or see the world would be very different. People like to think they know everything that goes on in the world but they sometimes don't. Throughout her Ted Talk Adichie lists many dangers of a single story, There are so many to where sometimes people don't know it could be a danger of a single
The uniqueness of our minds and our cognition is irreplaceable. Beauty, and reverence of the voice lie in the opinions it resonates. We take aesthetic pleasure in the speech of those who motivate us and adopt from them a number of values and beliefs that we agree with. The likelihood of individuals basing their ideals and decision making process off of accessible and prolonged exposure to certain influences is great. These underlying unidimensional prejudices cause us to be biased in our opinions. Various forms of literature are able to help their readers to become more aware of their prejudices. Though the messages we adopt from these texts, we are able to realize the importance of basing our opinions from multiple sources and perspectives. Literature has traveled great lengths to help me become more cognitive of my prejudices, and encourages me to seek different perspectives before formulating an opinion.
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.
Stories are a means of passing on information, acting as a medium to transport cultural heritage and customs forward into the future. In his essay titled "You'll Never Believe What Happened," King says that, "The truth about stories is that that's all we are” (King Essay 2). Contained within this statement is a powerful truth: without stories, a society transcending the limitations of time could not exist. Cultures might appear, but they would inevitably die away without a means of preservation. Subsequent generations would be tasked with creating language, customs, and moral laws, all from scratch. In a way, stories form the core of society's existence.
...the matter. People she got married to after her first husband died were all horrible to her and I would imagine because they looked down on her. Her children that were supposed to live well with other families were treated in a similar way where they were all not treated well and were slaves to them. It was interesting to see how much of her Indian culture has changed since she was a little girl. When she was younger, there were still Indian ceremonies and traditions that were followed closely, and as she got older, it seems like these traditions started to fade away because of the change of environment. Because of all the foreign people around them, they eventually stopped doing many of their old traditions. Their traditions are so different of that of an American tradition where I feel like people back then were probably ignorant and just saw Indians as savages.
The ability to tell one’s own story, to speak one’s mind, is the best antidote to powerlessness. Tan’s writing instills agency and visibility in Chinese American women. The silence is broken, and their new voices are constructed in collective storytelling, a language of community, without denying or erasing the different positions such collaboration encounters. Tan compels each of her characters to tell their own story in their own words, thus (re)creating the meanings of their life. The interrelated narratives make sense only if readers can discern the specificities of each woman’s story as located within the novel.
In this day and age we spend an extensive amount of time engrossed in literary works, films, television shows and other forms of fiction. Some see this in a positive light, contending that fictitious stories cultivate our mental and moral development. Others however have argued that fiction is mentally and ethically obstructive. Posing the age old question: Does fiction build the morality of individuals and societies, or does it break it down?
The constant changing of technology and social norms makes difficult for different generations to understand one another and fully relate to each other. Diction and slang change as years pass and what is socially acceptable may have been prohibited in the previous generations.
To be inconsistent with traditional communities beliefs it is hard for many to accomplish. Nevertheless, writer Kate Chopin fights that conflict to deliver the readers a few of the greatest thought vexing literature that a human can get their hands on. Applying to her improvement reflections of narrative stories, such as plot control, irony, and character development, Kate is capable to take the reader towards a world of feelings that humanity would despise. Chopin shows her unbelievable literary ability in “The Story of an Hour” by joining character development and plot, with her use of thought-provoking vocabulary and narrative irony.
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.
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
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
We are shaped by stories because we learn through “mythistory” which is history mixed with mythological stories to help learn about our past and ourselves since the beginning of the storytelling times (125). Therefore, storytelling has been a part of human society since the beginning of time. Humans are creatures of habit and that means they will continue to tell and live through stories because that is what they know. Gottschall eloquently states this idea throughout the novel by reiterating that humans learn from the stories told by the ancestors. Furthermore, that is why we continue to tell stories because the more we can relate to the topic at the hand the more willing a person is to continue to work towards the goal or dream. Additionally, it one can relate to the topic several others can at the same time, because whether it be reading, music, or film people everywhere are watching therefore they are connecting (137). Human instinct is to connect to on other; that attribute comes from years of stories telling children about how they are only as strong as the group they are with. Our lives are shaped by stories because our lives are about being connected to one other around the world because if one is not connect then one is not important to the world they think. Therefore, as previously mentioned stories are a
She begins with a short description of her family’s childhood house-boy, Fide. While describing Fide, Adichie notes that “his family was very poor... Their poverty was my single story of them” (Adichie 2:58). Adichie gives an anecdote of her personal life, describing one time in her childhood when she judged a family solely on their poverty. To further her anecdotal evidence, Adichie describes the beginnings of her life with her college roommate in the USA. While portraying her early relationship with her roommate, Adichie argues that “She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove” (Adichie 4:44). Adichie gives another anecdote about her beginnings in the USA, and about how her roommate assumed that, since she was from Africa, it was impossible that Adichie was anything more than a primitive savage. By giving numerous anecdotes primarily about her early life and the single stories that she encountered or experienced, Adichie describes the commonplace nature of the single
Stories are important for many reasons. Not only do we as human beings rely on telling each other stories to pass time, get our points across, or share memories we have but also to teach lessons. Many stories that are told are about something that has happened to someone personally, or a story that was passed on to them by another person. Regardless, stories have been used to help us as humans communicate since the beginning of time. Story telling has been an extreme aid to our history as we pass tales on from one generation to the next. Stories have impacted me ever since I was a little girl. I was told stories not only to get me to fall asleep every night but also as lessons for me when I did something wrong. Stories with morals were also told to me so I could learn from them. Many stories told to me even to this day help me learn and grow as a person. I myself even tell stories of my own in my writing along with stories I have learned from other...
This quote by Tim O’ Brien beautifully captures the influence of stories in our lives. Stories attract us, move us and inspire us to be a better human being.