English > ESSAY > Telling Many Stories to Challenge a Single Story University of Massachusetts, DartmouthENL 101Model (All)

Telling Many Stories to Challenge a Single Story University of Massachusetts, DartmouthENL 101Model Argument Analysis Essay

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Telling Many Stories to Challenge a Single Story In her TedTalk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian-American author, discusses the risks of presenting only one ... view of a person, group of people, or place, particularly those that are not well represented in global media. She argues that when we focus on only the negative aspects of these people and places, such as poverty, disease, and war, we form a one-dimensional, incomplete view. This in turn minimizes the likelihood of forming connections between people from disparate backgrounds and reduces the agency of those from other groups. Finally, she points to literature’s role in this issue, noting that texts have the power to both create and shatter such stereotypical views. In keeping with the theme of the talk, Adichie relies mainly on stories from her own experiences to support her ideas. To emphasize the pervasiveness of stereotypes, she describes times when a “single story” was forced upon her, such as the way she was viewed when she first came to the United States as a college student. Her roommate’s expectations of Africans developed out of images from popular media. Adichie’s roommate was surprised that Adichie spoke English and asked to hear her tribal music. Adichie relates this to a broader view of Africa as a place of “beautiful landscapes” and tragedy, “waiting to be saved by a kind, white foreigner.” She then gives other examples to demonstrate that her roommate was not an isolated phenomenon: the writing professor [Show More]

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