Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's The Danger Of A Single Story

In recent years, there have been flurries of discussions and fits of rage over the fact that many people make stereotypes of others. These stereotypes are not only very dangerous; they are often extremely untrue. Even in my life, stereotypes have been made about me, as people seem to believe that people from the South are unlearned and know nothing. One person who brings this to topic to the public in a professional way is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In her TED talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanada Ngozi Adichie establishes ethos by sharing experiences from her life to prove that a portion of someone’s story is never enough to make assumptions about them. Her use of these stories effectively convey her frustration with stereotypes

This story establishes ethos by making an emotional connection with her audience, while discussing this topic. At a young age, Fide came to her home as a helper to her family, which would undoubtedly lead most people to conclude that Fide’s family was poor, since as a child he was having to work. If that was not enough, Chimamanda’s mother verbally told her young daughter that Fide’s family was poor. This caused a picture of Fide’s poverty to be the only thing that Chimamanda thought of when Fide came to mind. Additionally, this picture of poverty was only made more vivid when Adichie’s mother said to her, “Finish your food! Don’t you know? People like Fide’s family have nothing.” The one thing that finally changed Chimamanda’s mind about her house-boy’s situation was actually visiting the village where he and his family lived. When she visited Fide’s home, she saw a beautiful basket that Fide’s brother had made with his own hands. It had never occurred to her that this extremely impoverished family could be anything other than poor. By the way that Adichie speaks of this moment in her life, one can tell that it was a marking moment for her. In this part of her talk, Chimamanda easily establishes ethos by showing that even she as a child was not immune to making assumptions about others. At a young age, she was able to realize just how dangerous it was to assume anything about

She points out the logic of most people, by making claims of what most people see Africa as. Many people believe that Africa is just a place with beautiful scenery, majestic animals, mass poverty, terrible diseases, and people who are just as wild as the animals that live among them. By pointing out that those ideas are just untrue, Adichie challenges the normal logos of many people. However, many people did not come up with this far-fetched logic on their own. Writers in the past, such as John Lok have referred to the people of Africa as “beasts”. This story of beastliness gives a terrifying story of Africa to those who have never even been there. Even though Adichie grew up in Africa, one of her professors did not like her story, because it was not “authentically African”. This professor used a stereotype of Africa to attempt to tell someone who had grown up there that she was wrong. In her speech, Adichie also points out that Africa is also commonly misidentified as a country. Again, she is able to challenge the hard-set