The Danger of a Single Story

Summary:

Chimamanda starts her presentation by explaining a little about her life. She was born and lived in Niageria until she moved to the United States to study. But when she got here was when she discovered that not everything was the way they pictured it in books or the television.

Adichie describes that people are vulnerable and impresionable. We think one way of others just by what we have heard. As she explains it, "they had become one thing in my mind." We don't take the time to learn and understand how and who they really are. An example that she gave was about Africa and its people. All around the world, they see Africa as a place with beautiful landscapes, and the people could described to be poor. This is an image that almost everyone has about Africa. But why? As Adichie described, "show people as one thing, as only one thing over and over again, and that is what they become."

She then talks about power, which means "to be grater than another." She explains that many things depend on power. This is where all the other ideas and critiques from others come from. Adichie also talks about stereotypes. A story in which they are using stereotype, it means "not that they're not true, but that they're incomplete." The real truth behind a story is not being presented, and that's why people aren't able to see behind was is being presented.

At the end of the story Adichie says that "stories matter." We have to understand that not everything being published or shown is complete, so we cannot let ourselves be guided by it all. We have to be open and understand what is really happening.

Synthesis:

I completely agree with Adichie with everything that she said in this talk. I do believe that people tend to judge or see someone the way they are being presented to us. But the truth is that what we hear or see is only giving us an outside image of what is really happening. The true story, the behind the cameras is not always shown. For example, one time I read an article about Mexican people. It said that Mexicans were lazy and they did not care about rising up. Where did they get this imformation from? They just saw someone with this characteristics, and they automatically associated them with every Mexican. I do not believe that this is correct because it's not the complete truth. We just think it is because that's what we have been hearing for a long time.

When I started listening to this talk, the first word that came to my mind was "stereotype" I liked that the author actually included this word in her talk. I also liked the way that she described it, "not that they're not true, but that they're incomplete." I think that stereotypes are around us and we do not even realize. We have to be able to see not only what it's being shown, but also what's not, the whole truth.