“The Danger of a Single Story”

1. On what topics might you have a single story?

I have a single story especially on international topics and topics that aren’t local to me.
A lot of things I understand around me, but when it comes to third world countries or
countries like Russia, I have preconceptions which are single stories. For example, I still
think of Russia as I am told through communist stories and other media that I consume.
The best example of me seeing another story was just the other day. I saw/watched a
video about a boxing match where an old guy beat up a young guy I think in Russia.
Either way, that changed my perspective. I hadn’t thought that Russians did boxing and
other sports or were a normal country. I always thought them to be kind of special. I
realize that much of the cultural understanding common throughout a whole country, is
very foreign to me. Everything is different to an outsider.

2. What stories do you tell about yourself? Which ones make you who you are?
I tell stories mainly about fun things I have done or experiences I have had with other
people that stand out. The stories that make me who I am are all of them. If I told just
one story, people would miss out on some other key parts of my character. Each of my
stories are different, but they also represent a key character about me. The ones that
attach to myself are the ones that fundamentally represent me as my own person.

3. According to Adichie, what is the danger of a single story?

If you are only told one side of the story, you don’t understand both sides of the story. If
you leave it up to just one side, you won’t see the other side. It is important that you see
both sides, because if not, you can make invalid conclusions about a society or person
through an understanding of only part of them.
4. What is the connection between power and stories? How does this text deal
with human rights?
People who have the most power usually have the most credibility and force in telling
stories. This text deals with human rights in that everybody has a right to have their
story told. To understand other people, we need to hear their story.

5. How can we learn more perspectives and hear more stories?

We can read more!!! We can also consume media from lots of different sources, so which we
can hear different stories.
Notes:

Early reader and writer

- Wrote same stories and things she read. She felt that she could not write about things
about herself.
- Found books by Africans, wrote same type of books
- We have to see outside of the original story - the bias - that we draw from our
impressions.
- Roommate did not understand her background and where she was coming from, she
learned what she heard.
- Stereotypes of Mexicans had made her see something that was not actually the story of
what lives work.
- Just because you hear a story, that does not mean that story is correct.
- Insisting on only negative stories flattens the details of a story.
- Stories echo things that are different over similar stories can add value to the picture.
- People in third world countries have the story and life that doesn’t exist in our biases.