The Danger of a Single Story

By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“I’m a storyteller” (line 1)

• personal pronoun

• engages audience

• short sentence

“few personal stories” (line 1)

anecdotal — lighthearted tone

“the danger of the single story” (line 2)

• juxtaposition (a literary device where two or more ideas, places, characters, or objects are placed close together or side-by-side in order to emphasize comparisons or contrasts)

• cautionary tone

“although I think four is probably close to the truth” (line 3-4)

ethos — establishes credibility

“my poor mother was obligated to read” (line 7)

pathos — humor

“all my characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out” (line 8-10)

listing = monotony, uninspiring

“I had never been outside Nigeria” (line 11)

short sentence

line 8-13

• Juxtaposition

• Antithesis (placing two contrasting ideas, concepts, or things side-by-side to create a strong effect of opposition or difference)

“impressionable and vulnerable” (line 14) “children” (line 15)

emotive language

“impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story…” (line 14)

emotive language

“Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye” (line 20)

ethos — credibility (the character)

“Now, I loved those American and British books I read” (line 24)

complimentary — engages audience (who are listening to the speech in the TED talk)

“They stirred my imagination.” “They opened up new worlds for me.” (line 24-25)

short sentences

'“but the unintended consequence was that…” (line 25)

language choice = empathetic tone

“…did for me was this : it saved me from...” (line

draws importance to following clause

“Finish your food! Don’t you know? People like Fide’s family have nothing” (line 33-34)

dialogue pathos (in the speech) — humor

line 28-35

logos (the appeal to reason and logic within a text or speech) — highlights shared experience

'“then one Saturday” (line 36) “years later” (line 42)

time expressions

'“this poverty was my single story of them” (line 40-41)

logos — critiques herself

'…what she called my "‘tribal music’ … my tape of Mariah Carey” (line 46-47)

reference the contrast between popular culture and her own culture

“she assumed that I did not know how to use a stove.” (line 48)

short sentence/ paragraph = limited view

“…well-meaning pity” (line 50)

language choice = empathetic tone

“a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe” (line 51)

parallel structure

“no possibility” (line 52-53; appeared 3 times)

anaphora (the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or verses)

“…that I, as a child, had seen Fide’s family” (line 59-60)

• draws parallels between herself and her roommate

• empathetic tone (conveying a sense of understanding and compassion towards the subject matter, particularly the characters or situations being described)

line 54-60

logos

“…I too am just as guilty” (line 61)

critiques herself

“fleecing” “sneaking” “being arrested” (line 65-66)

language choice

“…that sort of thing” (line 66)

dismissive tone

“…watching the people going to work, rolling up tortillas in the marketplace, smoking, laughing.” (line 67-68)

lack of conjunction = endless list

“…bought into...” (line 71)

phrasal verb suggests choice

“show a people as one thing, as only one thing…” (line 73)

repetition

“…over and over again…” (line 74)

repetition

“Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.” (line 75-77)

• juxtaposition

• antithesis

“…when we reject the single story, when we realise that…” (line 82)

• anaphora

• collective pronoun