A Speech With More Than One Story I am Monise Ghandchi. I am a 17-Year-Old persian girl who holds many personalities. I am energetic, athletic, generous, loud, quiet, innocent, guilty, and etc. However, the youths i grew up with narrowed my presence down to one thought. A single story. Although i’ve wondered, I never actually knew why people at my school wouldn 't interact with me since I’ve always been extremely friendly and generous towards anyone who got to know me. Then again, not many people tried to get to know me. I remember trying so hard to make friends that i have even straight up asked other kids if i could be their best friend. All they would do is give me an odd look and brush it off, ignore me, or shout at me until i went away. Needless to say, my strategies of not …show more content…
The ethics behind this way of thinking was best elaborated by Nigerian novelist and writer, Chimamanda Adichie. Her persuasive and intellectual speech, “The Dangers Of A Single Story,” opened my eyes towards what I’ve been experiencing for a large portion of my life. This new understanding that Adichie helped me discover about people who neglect to take in mind the history that each person holds, allowed me to cope with these issues. However, it is important to know that other people who’ve suffered the same consequences of people’s ignorance, often don’t have the same levels of confidence or understanding to just get up and move on from the situation. There are people like me who decide not to pay attention to people who don’t bother seeing more to me, or there are those who let their lack of knowledge affect them and basically let other people tell them what kind of person they are. I encourage all of you to be your own person. I encourage you all to be the biggest person you can possibly be and truly make your colors show. I discourage labels and I believe that anyone can rip labels off of themselves as easy as they could place them
People these days tend to make assumptions about others based on the criteria such as a person’s clothing or skin. However, people rarely realize that these assumptions can lead to violence and it could end up killing innocent citizens. In another way you can put it is that, prejudice ruins and sometimes even destroys society. It also causes people to lose all understanding for their fellow human. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch says, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (39). People often fail to examine a situation from someone else view because their opinions are biased. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows readers how prejudice causes people to believe in rumors, judge others by their race, and deem the beliefs of others unacceptable.
Before my years in high school, I rarely put time and effort into studying and constantly associated with my friends at school; that is until I entered high school. The different competitive atmosphere at high school caused me to suddenly prioritize my studies ahead of everything else and my ambition became greater than ever. I began to interact less with my old friends and become less sociable with those around me. My parents also began to notice this drastic change and encouraged me to once in a while contact my old friends. During the beginning, I contacted my friends about two or three times a week, but the phone calls began to gradually diminish. I began to abandon my previous cheerful, ebullient nature in order to conform to the competitive, tense study environment at high school. As long as I successfully accomplished my goals and was accepted by others, I was willing to alter myself in order to assimilate into the mainstream environment. Through my hard work and perseverance, I was able to reach my goal and receive the acknowledgement of others; however, despite fulfilling all my ambitions, I did not feel any joy or satisfaction within myself. Even though I successfully accomplished my objectives in school, I realized that in return I completely sacrificed my social life. Despite being accepted by others, I began to feel a sense of loneliness and longed to
In her TED talk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about the role of perception in her life and how it has affected her. Many times we have been through experiences that surprise us in regard to perception, such as the first time we meet someone from another culture. We have been inundated with stereotypes and preconceived notions since we were children, through stories, media, parents, teachers, and friends. Furthermore, these presuppositions that we carry are rarely, if ever, based on anything substantial, yet they show up in every part of our life. Adichie calls this 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 says this,
When you first enter the world, it’s easy for one to develop black and white vision. I’m not talking about actual eyesight. By black and white vision, I mean that people have a simple view of the world where one action is completely right and one action is completely wrong. I was one of those people during my early years. I thought I had a clear picture of who I was and what right from wrong was. My change in views is attributed to the first time I experienced an identity crisis and the ideas of altruism and consequentialism that followed.
When I first changed elementary schools, I was shy and concerned that this would keep me from making friends. I moved to Harper just before finishing second grade, but it wasn’t until August of that year that I actually attended school in Harper. At first, I’d spend my recesses walking the playground and watching children play with their friends. After my first few days of school, students began to bully me about my size, appearance, or shyness. Counselor visits became a regular and my once happy nature slowly became a rarity. I don’t remember how long I’d been in Harper before Samuel and I met. He once stood up for my when I was being called fat and we had been friends ever since.
Think of a place everyone has been but no one has stayed. The answer is Neverland. When growing up Neverland is a place for dreamers and for stories to come alive. However, after a certain age everyone stops visiting Neverland, or so they think. That idea results from the notion that stories make human beings human. Humans are complex creatures that are continuously growing and practicing for the future. In The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, Jonathan Gottschall demonstrates that stories are a part being human and that without stories humans will not be who they are today.
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.
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.)
I have been to so many different schools that I cannot even count them all using all 10 fingers. You would think that by now I would be used to being the new kid, but with every move it just gets harder and harder. I have learned that it is harder to be the new kid when you are older versus when you are younger. As a kid it is cool to be the new kid and everyone wants to be your friend. In high school it is the complete opposite. Unless you approach them, most high school students won’t even bother talking to you. Every time that I think I have finally made a friend, I am almost immediately shot down. I am beginning to feel like I don’t belong
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
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
“The Story of an Hour” was a story set in a time dominated by men. During this time women were dependent on men, but they always dreamed of freedom. Most people still think that men should be dominant and in control. They think that without men, women can’t do anything and that they can’t be happy. Well this story has a twist.
In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin expresses many themes through her writing. The main themes of this short story are the joy independence brings, the oppression of marriage in nineteenth century America, and how fast life can change.
I know what it’s like to feel rejected by peers. When I was a child I was very shy and not much of a sociable person. Many people would bully me and too this day I’m still a little terrified by people. I have a hard time trusting others and coming out of my shell. However, when I do I make some amazing friends. What helped me get over some of the torment I faced from elementary through high school were my parents and my religion. My mom always reminded me that I had individual worth and that anyone who didn’t see that was missing out. Constant years of this reminder allowed me to accept my past and move on. By moving on I was able to start making friends this year.
I take my headphones out for what feels like the millionth time, but like the past million times no one is talking to me. Sometimes I wonder if to them, I am just a charity case, the girl who had no friends and then they “adopted” me. I’m not the girl who sits alone at a table, no I’m worse than that. I sit at a table filled with girls who claim themselves to be my friends, but yet I sit listening to music and reading all throughout lunch not talking to them. We don’t text or even hang out after school, other than the occasional ‘hi’ I never even talk with my so called friends. I feel someone get up around me, and next thing I know everyone walking towards the doors, so my legs decide to do the same.