Danger of a Single Story

Anecdotal speech

Makes the audience believe that her points are valid because she has first-hand experience of the issues she is talking about

Allows her to describe how she herself has fallen victim to having a single story, showing how easy it is to have this happen, but also how she has overcome this, showing that anybody can do it

'We didn't have snow, we ate mangoes, and we never talked about the weather'

Juxtaposition and antithesis to her description of Western literature
Emphasises how different her reality was to the books she was reading yet how she had still developed a single picture of what literature should be like

'What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story'

Emotive language and use of a collective pronoun
Shifts the tone to become more serious to show the true risks of a single story
She starts to use collective pronouns rather than personal pronouns to tell the audience that everybody is at risk of developing stereotypes

Chronological order

Illustrates how she used to be close minded but then through exposure to different viewpoints is now more open minded

Title

Foreshadowing and metaphor

The cautionary tone creates a sense of foreshadowing for how harmful it is to have a single story

The metaphor 'story' exposes stereotypes for what they are - fiction

'all my characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather'

Highlights how monotonous all of the books she read were as a child, showing how close minded the world was making her at the time

‘it saved me from having a single story of what books are

'Saved' juxtaposes 'danger'
Shows that you can challenge the danger of a single story by widening your scope of the content you consume

"Finish your food! Don't you know? People like Fide's family have nothing.

Reported and direct speech
The humour and relatability makes Adiche more likeable and trustworthy which engages the reader and improves her credibility
It also shows how we promote stereotypes everyday in our casual language, showing it is a systemic issue