The danger of a single story Flashcards
Message
Adichie warns listeners/readers against stereotyping groups of people as ‘there is never a single story about a place’
An anecdote about how bias is created from single stories/narratives
‘All i heard about them was how poor they were… their poverty was my single story of them’
‘That when we reject a single story, when we realise that there is never a single story about a place we regain a sort of paradise’
Repetition of we to create a sense of oneness or close relationship between Adichie and readers , and re affirm that its something as a people humanity needs to work on. it is not a lecture but a plea to be better
‘Show a people as one thing, only one thing, and that is what they become’
She summarises her speech to hammer home the importance on not stereotyping and also shows the dangers of only showing/seeing a people as one thing
Language features
- Anecdotes
- personal pronouns
- repetition
Anecdotes
Uses anecdotes to convey her point and to help create a relationship with the reader so they do not think she is reprimanding them as it shows she is also guilty.
‘All my characters were white and blue eyed’
She thought thats all book characters were because she was only shown a single story
victimises her almost
‘Only thing my mother told us was… his family was very poor’
Anecdote
She had a single idea of Fide’s family not that they were individuals only that they were poor. Puts her on the same level as audience she is guilty too. but shows that shes changed and therefore so can humanity
‘She assumed i could not use a stove’
Anecdote
A single story of Africa was shown to the west so Africa became synonmous with poverty and struggle creating a single story in the eye of her roomate. She is a victim of single stories also so she can speak on the issue
Personal pronouns
To break the tension between her and the audience and create a sense of community between them
Repetition
Confirms in the readers brain the danger of a single story
‘one thing,only one thing’
‘Stories matter , many stories matter’
Themes
- Prejudice
- Influence of Media
Prejudice
Adichie addresses prejudice created by single stories both that she has received and also perptrated
’ She asked if i listened to what she called tribal music’
‘Impossible to think of them as anything other than poor’
Influence of media
Adichie also questions if we are questioning everything we consume through the news and media and how it affects us.
- ‘How impressionable and vulnerable we are’
- ’ All my characters were white’ in her books when she was young
Context
A speech by renowned authour Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie
