In “The Danger of a Single Story” author Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie explains what a so called “single story” is and the effect it has
on people. A single story is what you get when you use what information you
have without looking furthermore into a person or topic and from that you
decide that that is all there is to it. An example Adichie used to prove this
is was when she reminisced about her single story about her live-in domestic helper
whose name was Fide and his family in Line 42 claiming “All I heard about them
how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as
anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them.” Most often
we as people create single stories of others but not by choice, just out of
habit. A single story is a little bit different than an assumption because to
make an assumption you must use more than just the information you have at hand
and they are not misconceptions because for the most part they are usually
true. Single stories are subtler than both of those altogether because single stories
are what we get when we are given information but are too lazy to discover the
rest. What was ever stopping the author from asking her mother about Fide’s
family, what was stopping the author’s roommate from learning more about Africa
rather than just believing what she had heard and had been portrayed by the
media in Line 64, what made a story authentically African according to the
authors professor in Line 83? I’ll tell you what it was. It was the inability
to care. Do you think it’s possible to stop people from manifesting single
stories or are single stories just apart of human nature?
I think single stories are just apart of human nature now. People got so used to judging someone off of their stereotypes or what they heard of them that it is now something that occurs everyday. You can't stop people from what is now a habit.
ReplyDeleteSingle stories affects an outlook on a particular culture and can really change your judgement even if that person is the nicest person you put them in this category of that person representing the culture as a whole which is not the case. Single Short stories clouds your perception of another person.
ReplyDeleteI think single stories are just a part of human nature, because people only want to believe and see what they want without caring to find out if it is the whole truth. It is human nature to easily accept a story if it lines up with our beliefs, just how it is easy for us to disregard stories that question the way we think. This being said it is still possible to stop people from manifesting single stories if society was just more open minded to hearing stories that question a certain way of thinking. I believe with time society can adapt and embarrass the unknown. An example of this would be how open society is to accepting homosexuals now compared to a decades ago. As humans develop and become open minded I believe single stories will become extinct.
ReplyDeleteI believe that single stories and judging others by the first thing they see or hear is just human nature. I do believe that just because you see something means it is credible. A lot of people see or hear one thing about someone and spread the word even if it is just a single story of someone or something. I believe that one should not continue to judge or keep that one single story in their mind and actually acknowledge themselves beforehand.
ReplyDeleteI agree Kenny. I think that single stories are just a part of us now as Claudia said. We can not undo what has been done and we just have to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what you said Kenny. I actually think that a single story is synonymous with an assumption, but I respect that you're entitled to your opinion. I do think that a part of human nature is to try and grasp an understanding of new stimuli, and as humans, we often choose to use a single story because it is more convenient than ascertaining for yourself.
ReplyDeletesingle stories is our world. we believe everything because of a story. most of the time the first story determines the rest. even if their more stories they are all based of that first single story.so we always have the same imagine of something
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