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Summary Of The Danger Of A Single Story By Adichie

1080 Words5 Pages

Yash Patel
Course: Summer ELA
Due Date: 9/8/2017

Ted Talk Video - The Danger Of A Single Story By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Summary Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talked about the danger of a single story. The danger of a single story is that it can be a stereotype, which is contrived from news and other people. And, the stereotype gets larger and larger until people believe that it is an actual proven fact. Adichie’s main point is that people should never have a single conjecture of a place, event, or people. For example, Adichie’s roommate was startled to hear Adichie speak English so well, because her roommate has been in the dark for so long and didn’t know that Nigeria’s official language is indeed English. Adichie wishes people to not think …show more content…

She declared that she isn’t a scholar in English or literature, since she mostly succeeds in Mathematics and Sciences. Tan’s mother is Chinese who struggles speaking perfect English. So, her mother speaks what Tan calls “Broken English” which is grammatically incorrect English made of all kinds of small phrases and words that don’t quite fit together. Amy Tan says that her family language is an important element which played a role in shaping her identity. Language and identity are both linked in Tan’s life because since childhood, Amy Tan has been exposed to different kinds of Englishes from her mother, herself, and later her husband. “Broken English” has been a part of everyday life for Tan and her family. Amy discerns everything that her mother says perfectly and vividly, while others only understand half of it or none of it. For example, Tan’s mother requisitioned Amy to call people and act like she was her mother, Mrs. Tan, and speak in “Perfect English” for her. So, Tan’s mother would attempt to whisper behind the phone, but would vociferate anyways, and Amy would translate her mother’s “Broken English” to “Perfect English.” These different Englishes made Amy Tan who she is in present day. Finally, Tan viewed herself as an intelligent daughter of a Chinese mother and a good wife of her spouse, who spoke many different kinds of Englishes with her family. In conclusion, Amy Tan …show more content…

The dangers of a single story relates to Cultural Identity in this novel. Things Fall Apart shows the vulnerabilities of a single story in multifarious divergent points in the novel. One paradigm is when most of the villagers have a single story of the European missionaries of how they are harmless fools. This single story is very jeopardous because the missionaries are genuinely very perspicacious and advanced than the villagers, and they have come to help the small villages grow economies and to spread Christianity. But, most of the villagers only have one indivisible story of the foolish white missionaries. Another exemplar is when Okonkwo has a single story of the puissant Umuofia clan, in which he thinks that the people of Umuofia are immoderately doughty, vigorous, intrepid, and would protect the clan at all costs. The reader knows what really happens later in the story, the people of Umuofia don’t safeguard their home against the missionaries. Instead, they convert to Christianity and let the clan suffer and crumble. One can infer that having a single tale is indeed perilous after

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In Tan’s essay, she claims that her “mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well” (para. 15). When she says that her possibilities in life were limited, she is refers to the way her mother speaks English and how it impacted her own way of speaking. Growing up, she was constantly exposed to her mother’s “broken English” and begun to associate it with the proper way to speak the language. This made an such a profound impact on her language that she did not perform as well in English as she did in science and math classes. Her teachers decided to steer her away from English, and the possibility of her becoming a writer shrank significantly.

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She states how whenever her mother talked, many only understood about “80 to 90 percent of what she was saying” or ”some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese” (Tan 179). This problem was difficult for Tan as is later led to problems in various experiences as she grew up. She brings in how many people believed “English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were then imperfect” (Tan 180). A doctor once refused CAT scan results to her mother because of her “imperfect”

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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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And when the doctor called her daughter, me, who spoke perfect English, low and behold we had assurances the CAT scan would be found”.(13). This shows that again Tan had to help her mother and that she had nothing to be ashamed of. Personally this affected her in the way that her mother could not speak English too well, but she could, so she was the talker in the family. This shows the readers that if someone is different, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t help them. The audience can take her memories, so that they can understand that some people are

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The speech talks as well about the issue of power that is closely connected to the construction of the single story. The stories have been used to expropriate and label, but can also be used to empower and humanize. Accordingly, Adichie says, many stories matter, but we cannot know every story. However, we are

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