Danger Of A Single Story Essay

In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TedTalk titled “Danger of a Single Story”, Adichie reflects on the concept of a “single story” and how it risks critical misunderstanding. A single story is when a group of people is depicted and labeled through one singular story, becoming that only story. Single stories create stereotypes, which is “ not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” For example, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said in her TedTalk, the negative headlines regarding immigration in the United States specifically targets Mexicans. Many people, including Adichie herself, are given a perception that all Mexicans are a cause of immigration and come to America illegally. This is, of course, not entirely true, as we can see through

Because of this, people like Arnold Spirit Jr. in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and I are subject to the “single story” in a near daily basis. Arnold Spirit Jr. (Junior) is the main protagonist and narrator of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian . In the first chapter of the book, Junior describes that he is a hydrocephalic, meaning that he has excess “water” in his head and has an enlarged head because of it. He also details more physical impairments that he has, such as having ten more teeth than the average human, being nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other, having large hands and feet and having a lisp and a stutter. Junior is also Indian. After he is convinced to leave the reservation, Junior attends an all-white school called Reardan High, where he is bullied mainly for being Indian. There are a few Reardan boys who were the “big jocks” and often called him racist names like “chief” or “Tonto” because he is a reservation Indian. In one instance, a boy named Roger tells a very racist joke to Junior involving “Indians, black people, and buffalo”, triggering