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Nataly Abreu

English 101 L7

Analyze This (Final)

10/15/18

Her Unique Strategies: Literary Techniques for an Outstanding Argument

In the TED Talk “The Danger of A Single Story,” the speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie exemplifies the definition of a “single story” to her audience. Adichie is a Nigerian

novelist who considers herself a “storyteller." She classifies single stories as creators of

stereotypes since according to her, they tend to be “incomplete.” In the talk, Adichie

demonstrates how she wants to express her opinion about single stories to her audience and how

dangerous they are. Throughout the speech, Adichie makes her argument clear. She gets the

attention of her audience by utilizing multiple literary techniques such as ethos, pathos, and

logos.

When giving an outstanding argument, the speaker must be able to communicate with

its audience by utilizing a tone that can attract their attention. Adichie does this by utilizing an

assertive tone throughout her speech. This tone is beneficial to her as she demonstrates that she

knows plenty of information about her topic. In some occasions, her tone changed from solemn

to humorous which helped the audience recognize her confidence level, and it made the audience

connect more with her topic. For example, in the middle of the talk, she illustrates how one day,

an individual told her that “it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the

father of your novel,” and she responded by saying how it was a shame that all Americans were
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serial murderers. When the audience heard her sarcastic response, they started to laugh and

applause because they enjoyed her response. In fact, utilizing humor in her speech is beneficial

since it makes her audience to be more engaged. Humor also plays a significant factor in helping

the audience remember what she said, and it not only creates a bond between them, but it also

makes the speaker be more energetic by giving them the feeling of wanting to hear more about

what she has to say. In addition, the context of the joke demonstrates the audience how because

of how much knowledge she had about America, she managed to avoid creating stereotypes

about the country, and she endorsed her statement by using information that can be proven with

accessible evidence such as the book that she read previously (e.g., Gaitskill).

Being able to connect with the audience is key when giving an argument considering it

gives individuals an opportunity to relate to it. Throughout Adichie’s speech, she addresses

topics that produce different emotions such as pity, happiness, and anger. For example, Adichie

starts her speech talking about her childhood in which she includes an anecdote about a young

boy named Fide. She explains how much compassion she had of him because of his economic

status. “So I felt enormous pity for Fide’s family,” she said in the midst of the talk; therefore,

there is a possibility that some individuals present in her talk reflected about how difficult it must

have been for a family to live under a low economic status which is a technique that can bring

the sense of sympathy on the audience’s mind and heart. As a result, emotion is necessary to

persuade because it gives the listeners an opportunity to understand from where Adichie is

coming from, and she can utilize the feelings to manipulate the audience.

Another example that demonstrates how Adichie uses emotion to benefit her speech is

when she gives the example of one of her roommate from when she moved to the United States
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to attend university. In the middle of her talk, she stated how her roommate wanted to listen to

some of her music which according to Adichie, she classified it as “tribal music.” Adichie told

her audience how disappointed her roommate was when she heard Mariah Carey, an American

singer, and not music that came from her culture. When the audience heard this story, they

started laughing since Adichie not only used humor to connect with them but also, she mentioned

a well-recognized singer that the audience may also listen to. In fact, mentioning Mariah Carey

might be one of the strategies that Adichie used so that some individuals of the audience felt as if

they had a lot in common with her. Subsequently, this story can serve as a reflection on the

audience to think about how in some occasions, they tend to classify individuals by their

appearance, from where they come from, their accent or their use of vocabulary, rather than

familiarizing themselves with whom that person is.

To support her statement, Adichie informed the audience about a trip to Mexico, and she

mentioned a political topic that might cause anger to some individuals in the audience. In the

midst of her explanation, she said how “immigration became synonymous with Mexicans.”

Consequently, there is a possibility that some individuals present felt furious when hearing about

this political controversy as some might not approve with what is occurring between Mexico and

the United States. Although creating anger in an audience could be detrimental to a speech,

Adichie utilized it as an advantage to persuade the listeners and make them have a stronger

connection between their views and her topic.

Throughout the speech, Adichie uses pathos to convince her listeners of how strong her

argument is. She talks about her personal experiences such as living in Nigeria, moving to the

United States, attending a university, traveling to different countries (e.g., Mexico), and others.
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By the use of these pieces of evidence, her audience can make a choice of what side of her point

of view they want to be in.

In the end, all books, stories, and speeches are assigned to leave some message or

statement that will put its audience to think about the topic more deeply. In Adichie’s argument,

she utilizes this structure when she finalizes her speech with a quote from Alice Walker and then

with her thought. She said at the end, “that when we reject the single story when we realize there

is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.” When she ended her

argument with this thought, she puts all of her opinions and emotions about the topic in it.

Adichie’s quote gives the audience the idea of what side of the argument she is at. She prefers to

ignore single stories because when rejecting them, stereotypes are not formed.

Every speaker, writer, and author’s main desire is to connect with one's audience and

leave behind a message that will permanently stay in the minds. For that reason, they are always

writing or speaking about a topic that an audience considers interesting and that they can argue

by providing evidence that supports it. Furthermore, just like Adichie did in her TED Talk, they

tend to leave an impact on the audience. For Adichie, she gives her point of view of single stories

and how they connect with stereotypes. At the end of her speech, she wants her audience to

know that there are two sides of stereotypes as well as single stories. But, how does she support

her claim? She utilizes different strategies such as connecting with the audience (e.g., with

emotions), utilizing a strong tone, showing a high confidence level, using personal experiences

and giving background information. She demonstrates all this by her choices of ethos, pathos,

and logos which supports her opinions and made her speech an outstanding argument.
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References

1. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. The danger of a single story. ​TED: Ideas Worth Spreading,​

www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en.