1. What is a single story? A single story is many things: an assumption, a prejudice, and even a single-sided point of view. It is a way of sharing information that implants a preconceived notion about a place or a group of people in the minds of others. Single stories “…show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become” (Adichie “The Danger of a Single Story”) in the minds of those subjected to the stories. It highlights differences, and fails to truly convey what a place or a group of people really is. An American’s assumption that all of Africa is a tribal, poverty-stricken, uneducated area is an example of a single story, but many only believe that because it was all they were ever told. A …show more content…
She gives examples about how she had fallen prey to believing single stories—such as when she was taken aback when she discovered that her live-in domestic help’s family was not just poor but also hardworking. More often than not, she argues, single stories only highlights differences between people, therefore supplying groups with false images and expectations of others. Single stories also provides us with a disbelief that different groups of people can be more similar to us than we imagined, which can cause discontent, like when Adichie’s roommate was disappointed that Asichie’s “tribal music” was a CD of Mariah Carey. Adichie also states that stories are determined by those who hold power and “…How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, [and] how many stories are told” (Adichie “The Danger of a Single Story”) is all decided by one group of people. This one group of people may produce a story that is true in no way, shape, or form but is widely accepted because there is no other choice. Overall, Adichie is trying to argue that single stories provide us with false perceptions of reality, but stories in general, when told correctly, can do more good than harm. She concludes with an argument that “…Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a …show more content…
Unfortunately, my father’s family was completely out of the picture, but I never really resented that because my mother’s family more than made up for it. In fact, I cannot remember a weekend when we weren’t at my grandparent’s house in Brooklyn, watching old movies with my grandmother or playing cards with my grandfather. Throughout my childhood, I was unaware of that fact that my family wasn’t well off in any way, shape, or form. My father worked as a line-striper (and still does) and my mother stayed at home with me and my sisters. My parents lived paycheck to paycheck, but I couldn’t tell because we always had food on the table and my parents always found a way to make me and my sisters happy. Our financial situation caused us to move a few times when I was younger, so I never possessed a lot of stable friends until we moved back to New Jersey in 2006. My childhood remained uneventful until I hit seventh grade, which is when I experienced the first death in my family. Unfortunately, my one and only grandfather passed away and my life was shattered, resulting in a long bout of depression that lasted until my time in high school. Instead of going to my town’s high school, I chose to enroll in a Culinary Arts program at my county’s Vocational School. I excelled both in the kitchen and the classroom, and felt that I had found my purpose in life. By the time I graduated, I was
Stories are the way humans share, create, and explore their many experiences and identities with each other. When a story is told, the original content lingers depending upon how the storyteller recalls the content. Once the story is retold, it often takes on different details and meanings, because each storyteller adds their own perspective, experience, and meaning. The story then begins to have its own life. Each storyteller has a connection to the beginning and the end of the story.
The juxtapositions of text and image, the places where text shifts from short prose passages to more traditional poetic line breaks, and the works of art draw readers to their own understanding of the unconscious prejudice in everyday life. Thus, Rankine has the capability to push her readers with the use of the second person, where the reader is really the speaker. This method helps establish a greater unity of people, where she chooses to showcase her work as a collective story for many. In this way, she guides the reader with the second person toward a deeper understanding of the reality of a ‘post-race world’, allowing the reader to experience the story as if it’s their own. The final section, focuses on the themes of race, the body, language and various incidents in the life of the narrator. In the end, Rankine admits that she, “…[doesn’t] know how to end what doesn 't have an ending” (159). It is what her audience chooses to do with the newfound self that they find, where their standing on the reality of differences
Society is quick to identify problems in the lives of others, but always fails to recognize its own shortcomings. From the past to the present, this has been an issue that continues to plague mankind. In John Oskison’s, “The Problem of Old Harjo”, Miss Evans, a Caucasian missionary in the Indian
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.
By retorting with, “I had just read a novel called American Psycho … such a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.” Adichie appealed to Americans’ knowledge of themselves, showing the audience how absurd this claim was. Her sarcasm not only serves to make an absurd idea amusing, but also reverses the single story on the audience. She proves to the listener that it is through accurate knowledge and multiple stories that our opinions should be formed. In the same way, Adichie uses levity yet again when she says, “I learned, some years ago, that writers were expected to have had really unhappy childhoods to be successful, I began to think about how I could invent horrible things my parents had done to me. But the truth is that I had a very happy childhood, full of laughter and love, in a very close-knit family.” Her humor again draws attention to the danger of just one story. For instance, Adichie says, “writers were expected to have had really unhappy childhoods to be successful.”
In conclusion these stories exhibit three characters’ lack freedom compelled by human nature that one has the right to impose their ideals on others. The tragic endings of these stories demonstrate realistic endings of that time frame. One can only assume that the endings of these stories would be more idealistic in these contemporary times.
These five stories have all touched in their various ways on how mainstream society has preconceived impressions of groups based solely on a common factor such as race or religion that aren’t always accurate, they judge them based on these misconceptions and how these misconceptions can cause a division between these judged groups and mainstream society – when there need not be any. I for one will walk away from this assignment with a more open mind and will be more apt to really think about a person’s background before comparing and judging them based mainstreams standards.
One risk when we tell these single stories is the idea of stereotypes. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but they are incomplete.” This being said, the single story only tells one side of a story. The single story has a limited viewpoint because it is from one person and not from the eyes of many different people. I also agreed with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's idea about how single stories can create a misunderstanding between the individuals in conversation. The person from one culture might have a certain slang that the other person had never heard, and if there is no other person describing the story there might be a misunderstanding involved. Single stories have the potential to be dangerous, especially if we do not strive to learn more about the culture or the individuals in the
1) A single story is defined by Ngozi Adichie as “showing people one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become” (Adichie). She defined the single story in a TED Talk in 2009. During Adichie's talk, she explained how she was embarrassed of herself and her single story understanding of Mexican culture and people based solely on her experiences with American media and political coverage of Mexico. She had stereotyped the Mexican culture because the only stories she had heard were negative representations of impoverished people. Adichie exclusively categorized immigrants as Mexican, despite herself being an immigrant into America.
In “The Truth about Stories”, Thomas King, demonstrate connection between the Native storytelling and the authentic world. He examines various themes in the stories such as; oppression, racism, identity and discrimination. He uses the creational stories and implies in to the world today and points out the racism and identity issues the Native people went through and are going through. The surroundings shape individuals’ life and a story plays vital roles. How one tells a story has huge impact on the listeners and readers. King uses sarcastic tone as he tells the current stories of Native people and his experiences. He points out to the events and incidents such as the government apologizing for the colonialism, however, words remains as they are and are not exchanged for actions. King continuously alerts the reader about taking actions towards change as people tend to be ignorant of what is going around them. At the end people give a simple reason that they were not aware of it. Thus, the author constantly reminds the readers that now they are aware of the issue so they do not have any reason to be ignorant.
During the first quarter of the year in WMST 1172, the most influential reading I read/listened to would be, The danger of a single story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This is because the idea of the single story proposed by Adichie related and linked to my own personal experiences with stereotypes made by others in the dominated white community I lived in for the first half of my life. Correspondingly, according to Adichie, people who know only one part of the story, not the whole story, create stereotypes. In other words, the stereotypes created are from incomplete stories individuals hear. And although they may be true, they should not be used as a way to define a group of people.
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.)
Sometimes traditional arguments cannot be effective because what is at stake is too threatening. In these cases, all we have left to achieve common ground are our narratives, our identities. If we know and can understand our history more comprehensively by our stories, we can begin building a better vision (Enos 136).
When we first started this project I thought it was going to be hard, and a little bit weird to share the class, but at the end of the project I found it to be really easy and fun. The first part to this project was the TED talk “The Danger of a Single Story”. When I watched the video I fully understood what the lady was saying, and I found it very interesting. I learned that us having a “single story” makes us judgemental, discriminative, and unkind to others because we act like we know a person because of stereotypes that relate to them. The next thing we did in this project was look over the family letter and ask need to knows. The letter let all of us know exactly what we were going to do in this project, what we are going to need to complete
Through literary works readers are able to learn about the various meanings of human life experiences. Literary works influences each reader differently. Country Lovers and The Welcome Table are two short stories that deal with the common struggle of racism and discrimination among African American women.’’ Racism is an enduring, salient aspect of social and global structures. It is based on demonstrably false theories of racial different appropriated by a culture in order to deny or unjustified distribute social privileges, economic opportunities, and political rights to the racially stigmatized groups. Racism thus, structures social differences, power or culture or whom.’’ There are many stories that are written to show the everyday struggles of human conflicts and struggles that humans embark on in everyday life. The two stories I will be identifying the differences and similarities among the two powerful stories of two African American woman. I will be examining the content, form, Style of the literary works.