Danger of single story

Danger pronoun use

• 2nd person pronoun ‘you‘ involves audience and invites them to consider their own relationship with stories and story-telling

danger first person plural

• use of first person plural “we“ suggests that we are all vulnerable in the power of stories

danger use of conjunction

• use of conjunction ‘But‘ at the start of the 5th paragraph suggests the ‘mental shift‘ the writer underwent when she ‘discovered African books’

danger metaphor

the metaphor “we regain a kind of paradise“ suggests the benefits of rejecting single stories

danger single sentence paragraph

• single short sentence paragraph

• “she assumed that I did not know how to use a stove“

• draws attention to the ignorant and limiting judgements about others that people unwittingly make

danger repetition

• repetition of the phrase “single story“ and use of it as a metaphor for wider issues such as racial stereotyping reinforce the key message of the speech