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Danger Of A Single Story Essay

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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 …show more content…

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

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746 Words | 3 Pages

The book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, was a very popular book because it is different from normal books. The author wrote the book with a perspective of a young high school boy named Arnold Spirit Jr. from Spokane Indian Reservation. Arnold was born with hydrocephalus, and it didn't make his life easier. He is the only person on the reservation(rez) who sees a future for himself. He goes through an incredible story to get the happiness he deserves.

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1180 Words | 5 Pages

In the first part of the book, jr is bullied for his physical disabilities. From an early age, Junior was bullied because of the complications of his hydrocephalus—his lisp, stutter, and ungainly stature. Jr said “Everybody on the rez calls me a retard about twice a day,”(Alexie, pg.4) “They even call me a retard when they are pantsing me or stuffing my head in the toilet or smacking me upside the head,” (Alexie, pg.4) This bullying follows Junior into his teenage years when, worried he will get beat up, Junior avoids participating in community events like the Spokane Powwow. When jr decides to go to Reardan High, an all-white school off Now, everyone on the reservation sees him as a racial and cultural traitor.

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671 Words | 3 Pages

He realizes that his team has numerous economic and social advantages. Junior’s ability to address topics like poverty, racism and bullying with humor is a significant characteristic of his voice. For Junior, as well as his friends Rowdy and Penelope, part of growing up is recognizing that the world is more complicated than a strict division of opposites, it’s possible to be more than one thing—part of countless different “tribes”—is what enables him to unify his split identity and, as someone destined to travel beyond the reservation, navigate the world both figuratively and

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156 Words | 1 Pages

He had created new friendships and had repaired an old one. When he first arrived at Reardan, people called Junior many racist names. Eventually, Junior had gained the respect of teachers, students, and even of people on the reservation.

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1121 Words | 5 Pages

The decision to attend a white school is a tough one and Junior understands that for him to survive and to ensure that his background does not stop him from attaining his dreams; he must battle the stereotypes regardless of the consequences. In this light, race and stereotypes only makes junior stronger in the end as evident on how he struggles to override the race and stereotypical expectations from his time at the reservation to his time at Rearden. How race and stereotypes made

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696 Words | 3 Pages

The new school gives Junior a bunch of new opportunities, he ends up making new friends and meets a girl. Junior deals with noticeable struggles throughout the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, that includes depression, low self-esteem, and bullying; he builds resilience to these struggles through his drawings, words, and actions. Junior’s mental health started at a young age. He would get bullied by kids and adults on the reservation. Junior has Rowdy, his best friend who helps him through the bullying that he goes through.

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735 Words | 3 Pages

Junior loses a lot of friends and family at the young age of fourteen. He gets bullied because he was born with too much cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull, but he has his best friend Rowdy there to help him. Junior realizes that he needs to leave the reservation to get a better life for himself. He goes to a new school off the

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450 Words | 2 Pages

Stories have been something humanity has needed and used for countless years, dating back to the prehistoric man; stories are what can take us to a place we have never been in, or to meet a person long since forgotten. Stories are extremely powerful in this regard, however, a single one is just as powerful and can be much more damaging. This is an issue Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie intends to address in her presentation, or Ted Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story”. To summarize, she addresses the detrimental results that can occur due to the exposition of a single story or perspective on any issue, concept, place, or person, some such results can be seen in stereotypes and generalizations. Further research on her background reveals she has performed talks such as this one on similar or coinciding issues, such as the expansion of African literature to western audiences and other Ted Talks regarding the integration of cultures.

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761 Words | 4 Pages

Mr. P advises Junior to have perseverance so, he should never give up on his hope of becoming better. Mr. P believes hope leads to greater things, a better future. Therefore, he wants Junior to have hope and leave the reservation for the greater thing, a better future. Another example is Junior's experience at Reardan. For instance, while Roger is making inappropriate comments, Junior decides to defend Indians, black people, and buffalo, so “he punched Roger in the face”(Alexie 65).

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996 Words | 4 Pages

Junior is a teenage boy who is different from everyone else on the reservation. He has big goals, but he is an outcast so nobody pays attention to him. When he moves and plays his first game against his old school, everyone thinks he is a traitor and “boos” him. He feels more accepted at Reardan than his home school.

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1042 Words | 5 Pages

In her TED talk called “The danger of a single story” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, speaks about the negative effects, single stories can have on a certain people. A single story is created when the same discourse is being repeated over an over again in books, TV shows or in the news. The single story creates a stereotypical, one sided perception of a group of people. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells a story about how she, came to believe a single story in her childhood. When she was a child she read many American and English books, about people, with whom she had very little in common.

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1179 Words | 5 Pages

Stereotyping is a crucial tool towards human beings. People can be much attached to the idea of stereotypes, because they tend to gather and back up their stories from their own experiences. And people are all guilty for creating a single story, whether it’s on purpose or not. How would people see the world if there was no such thing as a “single story”? In her speech, “The Danger of a Single Story”, Chimamanda Ngozi Achidie, is a writer from Nigeria, and she defines herself as a storyteller.

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263 Words | 2 Pages

The danger of a single story is the risk of limiting your knowledge of a particular person, place, or thing without really knowing the true understanding of it. A single story makes you start to categorize things in a certain way and makes you start to think that it is the true meaning, it doesn't make you open up to a different side of it because you are limited to only of what you know and think and nothing can change your mind. “The Africa You Don’t Know” really represents and shows the danger of a single story because the Africa you think and know probably isn't what actually exists. People in America that haven't researched about Africa and only have a judgement of it being just a place full of starving kids. Because that's all we see

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765 Words | 4 Pages

If there is anything that makes me sad, it is the concept of homelessness. Everyday I see a homeless person, all different races and ages. It brings the question to mind of, how do they get there? What has to occur in order for a person to lose it all and end up on the streets? As it so happens to be, there are various factors that can result in leaving a person homeless.

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835 Words | 4 Pages

How powerful is a single story? At Ted Global 2009, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, expresses her view of single stories and the ways in which they are used to create stereotypes and divides us as a people. Adichie’s talk, “The Danger of a Single Story”, stimulates careful consideration to what happens when people and situations are reduced to a single narrative. She believes single stories are highly correlated with the power structures of the world and have the ability to strip people of their humanity.

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