The Danger of a Single Story Paper Example

The TED Talk which was done by a Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, was a significant talk with the title "The Danger of a Single Story" which mainly talks about some of the adverse implications of people who only earn from one stereotypical view about another culture and basing their interpretations hence attaching of stereotypical identities to other individuals. Therefore, this video brings out the cultural awareness question and its relevance in understanding various people from different parts across the globe. The title "danger" has the meaning that sticking to a single idea or story will result in adverse outcomes. This paper will discuss favorite thesis stated by Chimamanda during the TED talk.

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One ideal thesis point that was stated by Chimamanda was the fact that media play a role in the way people learn and create stereotypical identities in the first place. In today's society, it is widespread for people to categorize Africa as being a single nation and stereotype these people as being automatically poor because to what media chooses showing about these kinds of stories (Adichie, 2009). When Chimamanda schooled in the United States, these stereotypes were evident in the way she interacted with people from other races. There are stereotypical ways in which the Native American culture has become demonstrated in the children's literature as being inferior to the white culture (Nilsson, 2005). Many whites would automatically stereotype her by asking her some of the common stereotypical questions about Africa. Chimamanda explains that her roommate had felt sorry for her even before she saw her. The default position by Chimamanda roommate towards her as being an African was patronizing.

Another favorite thesis portrayed by Chimamanda was the fact that a single story leads to robbing the dignity of individuals. This enables people in realizing that by becoming culturally aware, it is relevant for interacting and engaging with different people universally. Therefore, Chimamanda showed the need for the creation of a shared universal experience. The principal purpose of Chimamanda is not scolding her audience because of lack of knowledge but instead explain their limited perspectives and misunderstanding are universal. Through opening with her admission in the tale involving Fide and his family concerning poverty, she mainly opened herself to the criticism of her talk (Adichie, 2009). As a result, this makes her become the more human narrator, and it added humor in her story in a manner that assists her audience in feeling like she was a close friend and not a mere lecture.

The other favorite thesis by Chimamanda was the importance of having people being able to learn about their self for them to own their identity. Chimamanda used storytelling to speak to the kind of conflict which occurs whenever people attempt owning other individuals' identities and fail to embrace theirs (Adichie, 2009). The role of storytelling which functions to explain another narration was evident in Chimamanda talk. The principal purpose of the TED talk led by Chimamanda was to encourage people to broaden their scope of the stories that they consume concerning other cultures and people. But this is not a high-level talk which spells out the reason why it is significant using facts and statistics; it speaks to the heart through making use of the storytelling examples. Hen listening to the talk, Chimamanda successfully utilized about ten different small stories in sharing the main message itself. All of the stories told by Chimamanda were well fitting together through combining her experience when she lived in America and when she was living in Nigeria. Therefore, Chimamanda successfully made her story be much compelling through making use of storytelling in efforts to show the audience what she meant but not focusing only on what she knew and did.

References

Adichie, C. N. (2009). The danger of a single story. TED Talk. Abrufbar unter: www. Ted. com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story (Stand: 11.07. 2014).

Nilsson, N. L. (2005). How does Hispanic portrayal in children's books measure up after 40 years? The answer is "It depends.". The reading teacher, 58(6), 534-548.