In “The Danger of a Single Story”, Adichie starts off by telling us about her experiences with single stories. As a kid she loved to read and write but the only books she could get were western books. This gave her a huge western influence and a very closed perspective on literature because all the books she read had white, blue-eyed characters. Adichie couldn’t identify with western books because none of the characters looked like her, until she discovered African book. Not many were available and were not easy to find but Adichie managed, and it completely changed her perception of literature. After reading African books, Adichie realized that people like her can exist in literature, dark skin, kinky hair. Adichie realized that the consequence of her only reading American/British books was, a very closed perspective on literature, a single story about books not knowing she was wrong. Adichie continues to talk about single stories, she came from a middle-class family. When she turned eight, her family got a new house boy, Fide. All Adichie knew about Fide was that he was poor and Adichie’s mother would constantly remind her about it when she didn’t finish her food. Adichie had a single story about Fide, that he was poor, his poverty. Adichie went to visit Fide and his family, and she was shocked to witness their talents, weaving beautiful baskets. Adichie had a single story about Fide. Years later, when Adichie moved to the United States to attend college, she was stereotyped by her roommate, even before she got to know Adichie. Adichie later down the line accepted herself as African and identified as one. Living in the United States gave her a better understanding of her roommate’s perception/mindset. Adichie fell to the power of a single story when it came to Mexicans, she was so immersed in the media when they talked about immigration, how they were sneaking around the border, fleeting the healthcare system. She had a single story about Mexicans until she visited Guadalajara, watching Mexicans live about their life just like us, the media just portrayed them as horrible people because they can. Only those in power get to tell their story, show, and spread a single story about a certain group of people and feed those ideas to the people. Adichie ends advising us to reject the singles stories we are given because there is no such thing as a single story about any place.
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