Summary
In "The Danger of a Single Story" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie the author spoke about storytelling and its role in her childhood and how it influenced her writing. As she stated "I wrote exactly the kind of stories I was reading. All my characters were white and blue-eyed." She later on discusses how she herself experienced being viewed in the way media influenced another's mindset as she spoke about her college experience stating "My American roomate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language." Later on, experiencing life in America allowed her to take notice on how most stereotypes are influenced by the way the media depicts things. She states "And so I began to realize that my American roomate must have, throughout her life, seen and heard different versions of this single story, as had a professor, who once told me that my novel was not "authentically African." Throughout the text she reminds us that all negative stories about someone or something aren't the singular story of it and how there is always much more to look into. And so she ends the story stating "That when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise."
After reading and watching the Tedtalk “The Dangers of a Single Story” I have to say I agree with Adichies view on media and on recognizing just how much you allow to influence your viewpoint towards someone or something. Adichie stated “l recently spoke at a university where a student told me that it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had just read a novel called ‘American Psycho”— and that it was such a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.” This allows us to gain perspective into Adichies experience making a student recognize how extreme her conclusions towards accepting what she read as a fact and allowing it to influence her entire opinion towards someone is. This also opens the conversation into putting recognition onto just how much we allow to influence our views because yes some of these things may be true but it shouldn’t make it the singular image you have towards someone or something. Adichie also stated “All these stories make me who I am. But to insist on only these negatives stories is to flatten my experience, and to overlook the many other stories that formed me.” This reminds us that it is crucial to understand nothing can be defined by a singular view, stereotype, or experience. Although some of her writing might discuss her hardships it doesn’t mean she has only experienced hardships in her life, she also had moments filled with joy and so as readers and simply people surrounded by media we must remain conscious that there is always a bigger picture to something. Just like when a friend mentions their day towards us. We may think of only what they mentioned but there is always much more they experienced in their day we don’t know about aside from the singular thing we were told.
One thought on “Katherine Sangurima – Conversation 2”
Hi, Katherine. I agree with you that all of us, as human beings, tend to settle on knowing one side of the story without inquiring about the other. We allow the constant stream of bias we get from credited sources, or even just our family and friends, to narrate how we see life and the opinions we make. Hopefully, we can all begin to start questioning things that we know to be one-sided and gain full insight on situations instead of acting on ignorance or naïvety.