Do Not Judge a Book by Its Cover “The Danger of a Single Story,” by Chimamanda Ngoza Adichie is a both a serious and very inspirational piece. Adichie exercises her wit and humor using ironies that amuse the reader. In this story Adichie teaches the reader the danger of stereotyping and misinformation. Offering to acknowledge that there are two sides of every story. Not one story is necessarily always the correct one. Adichie, grew up in Nigeria Africa reading American and British children books. She could not relate to these stories since they were not in her experience. Still Adichie accepted and wrote about the literatures because it was how she perceived the text. After Adichie came across African writings she began to write about herself …show more content…
“When asked to listen to my tribal music she was disappointed when I produced a tape of Mariah Carey” (Adichie). The roommate was also surprised by how well Adichie had spoken English. She did not realize that Adichies language back in her home was English. This was the roommate’s single story of Adichie.
Just like Adichie, the reader has experienced bias from others. Starting a new school is hard but making friends is even tougher. Others would judge the way the viewer appeared and believe that the onlooker was something she was not. They claimed her to be stuck up or rude because she would not talk to anyone. They did not realize that the audience was just shy and needed time to warm up to the others.
When Adichie used a form of storytelling to convey her message to the audience. “The Danger of a Single Story”, presented a whole new outlook on how the reader should present a story and how it is important to wait before making judgements and assumptions. Adichie made this an enjoyable lesson learned and makes the audience look forward to more stories by her. When Adichie added her own experiences to the story, it felt like a friend was talking to the viewer. Adichie made the audience realize that they are not the only ones at fault for judging a book by its
Often, when a story is told, it follows the events of the protagonist. It is told in a way that justifies the reasons and emotions behind the protagonist actions and reactions. While listening to the story being cited, one tends to forget about the other side of the story, about the antagonist motivations, about all the reasons that justify the antagonist actions.
This quote describes how Louise Halfe uses all four common elements of native literature in her writings. I have chosen to discuss two of the elements she frequently uses, Spirituality and Orality in relation to three of her poems: My Ledders, She Told Me and The Heat of my Grandmothers.
As an ignorant Western society, we use single stories as a way to educate others on cultures that we don’t even know about. They are the false pictures we have of foreign cultures that our societies
He began reading when most of his friends wouldn’t even think of reading at level. In high school, he was exposed several writings of different author, some of the writers include Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Johnathan Swift (1667-1745) including the great Williams Shakespeare 's(1564-1616), he carefully analyzed their works and was amazed with them. He was fascinated to the point he started adopting the norms of what he has read in them. Before graduating from high, he also had the chance to read some rare works of African cultures by foreigners such was the one written a polish-born English author. Although his books seem to psychologically his way of thinking decided to conform to cohort himself to his local traditions (African). Reading is one of the skills the acquirer earn do, either it was learned a young stage or adult, to read is an aspect, but to write another important which many often consider less necessary important.
It is said that fiction is an essentially rhetorical art and that the author tries to persuade the reader towards a specific view of the world while reading. This is evident in both short stories, A Secret Lost in the Water by Roch Carrier, and He-y Come on Ou-t by Shinichi Hoshi. Although through A Secret Lost in the Water, Roch Carrier displays how fiction is an essentially rhetorical art better than Shinichi Hoshi in He-y, Come on Ou-t (awkard sentence), Shinichi Hoshi demonstrates it better through the use of prognosis. Furthermore, by utilizing the characters, such as the farmer from A Secret Lost in the Water, and the use of symbolism such as the hole from He-y, Come on Ou-t, it is evident that the author makes an endeavour towards persuading
She repeatedly mentions “the single story”, particularly after each story she tells. For example, after discussing a time of financial hardship in her childhood, Adichie emphasizes that “to insist only on those negative stories is to flatten her experience and to overlook the other stories that formed her.” She goes on to reiterate that “the single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete, and they make one story become the only story”(Ted, 12:48-13:09). This restatement of the same phrase and idea of the single story reminds us of and emphasises the main point of her speech, that single thoughts, ideas, or opinions of an individual create an incomplete generalization of said person without regard to who they actually are and what they have
Born and raised in a family of storytellers, it’s no wonder that this author, Louise Erdrich became a prolific writer. Louise was born in Little Falls, Minnesota. She grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, near the Chippewa Reservation with her mom, who had Native American roots and her dad who was of German descent. Her parents encouraged and challenged her at an early age to read, also to write stories and even paid her a nickel for each one that she wrote. Lorena Stookey states that Louise Erdrich’s style of writing is “like William Faulkner, she creates a fictional world and peoples it with multiple narrators whose voices commingle to shape her readers’ experience of that world” (Stookey 14). Louise writes this moving story “The Shawl” as she is haunted by the sorrows of the generations of her people, the Anishinaabeg. I initially saw this tale as a very complex reading, but after careful reading and consideration, saw it as a sad and compelling story.
Short stories are temporary portals to another world; there is a plethora of knowledge to learn from the scenario, and lies on top of that knowledge are simple morals. Langston Hughes writes in “Thank You Ma’m” the timeline of a single night in a slum neighborhood of an anonymous city. This “timeline” tells of the unfolding generosities that begin when a teenage boy fails an attempted robbery of Mrs. Jones. An annoyed bachelor on a British train listens to three children their aunt converse rather obnoxiously in Saki’s tale, “The Storyteller”. After a failed story attempt, the bachelor tries his hand at storytelling and gives a wonderfully satisfying, inappropriate story. These stories are laden with humor, but have, like all other stories, an underlying theme. Both themes of these stories are “implied,” and provide an excellent stage to compare and contrast a story on.
In 2009 Chimamanda Adichie gave a TED talk about the ‘danger of a single story’. A single story meaning, one thought or one example of a person becoming what we think about all people that fit that description, a stereotype if you will. In today’s America, I believe that we have all felt the wave of stereotypical views at some point or another. Adichie gives many relatable examples throughout her life of how she has been affected by the single story. Her story brings about an issue that all humans, from every inch of the earth, have come to understand on some level. A young child reading only foreign books, a domestic helper that she only perceived as poor. Her college roommates single story about Africans and her own formation of a single
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
In her TED talk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks through the role of perception in her life and the way that it changes social relationships. We have all had plenty of experiences that surprise us in regard to perception, such as the first time we meet someone from another culture, or meeting someone from our past in a new light. We have been inundated with stereotypes and preconceived notions since we were children, through stories, media, parents, teachers, and friends. Moreover, these presuppositions that we carry are rarely, if ever, based on anything substantial, yet they show up in every aspect of our life. Adichie calls the 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 states that,
The first part of the book gives an account of Immaculée’s family background. The love she experienced from her parents and her three brothers is illustrated. Her parents cared for everybody, particularly the poor. Because of the love with which she grew up, she never realised that she was living in a country where hatred against the Tutsi, her tribe, was rampant. It was not until she was asked to stand up in class by her teacher during an ethnic roll call that she realised that her neighbours were not what she thought them to be – good and friendly. After struggling to get into high school and university, not because she was not qualified but because of discrimination against her ethnic background, she worked hard to prove that if women are given opportunities to...
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
Stereotypes are a dangerous thing. Within today's culture, it is very easy to get wrapped up in a single story mindset and a power struggle, only resulting in stereotypes and generalizations being created about different cultures. A single story is described by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as a story of one aspect of a single person’s life, used as a basis for how everyone within that culture lives all of the time. This idea of a single story shows up all over the place, including in the book Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexi. The kids at Reardan School judge the main character, Arnold Spirit Junior, on his first day attending a school that wasn’t on the Indian reservation.
Racism and sexism thinly veiled by xenophobia in America, Adichie portrays these two factors in society. Generally by putting her main character through a consistent stream of seemingly routine events involving one or even both of the factors. Often times she deals with micro-aggressions about her hair, which does not fit the American standard of beauty and elegance. Often showing how people are quick to assume that she is unintelligent simply by her skin and her accent. Often times Adichie portrays Ifemelu as the object of criticism and envy. Ifemelu is merely struggling to survive in a new environment. An environment that by all accounts constantly attempts to tear her down, her psyche and emotional stability constantly suffering damage.