Name: Amber Parker

Period: 4

“The Danger of a Single Story”

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

You can have a single story on pretty much everything- politics, events, cultures, people, experiences,
crimes, car crashes, even just on how the day went.

2. What stories do you tell about yourself? Which ones make you who you are?
I tell my interesting stories because these are the most fun to tell and keep people the most engaged.
However, it is not just these stories that make me who I am. It is a combination of everything that I have
experienced, whether it be mundane or exciting.

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

With just a single story, you are in danger of missing important details. Her roommate missed the detail
about Africans being the same as us. She also said that we are in danger of missing human connections,
robbing people of their dignity, and not even knowing what we are missing.

4. What is the connection between power and stories? How does this text deal with human rights?
Usually, the people with more power are the ones who get their stories heard by the most people. For
example, American news is widely broadcast, even to other countries. However, less powerful countries hardly
ever show up in the media of foreign countries. In court, the powerful people have more influence (legal and
illegal), so their side of the story is often seen as more believable. In terms of human rights, this was of
showing things is unjust. Going back to the courtroom setting, people can be falsely accused or not get the
right punishment simply because of an imbalance of power. Because people tend to favor the stories of the
powerful, often times the less powerful are drowned out.

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

In order to be exposed to more stories, we really need to be proactive and look. Unfortunately in
mainstream media, not a huge variety of stories are published. Most news sources say very similar things. So,
we have to do some searching to find things from other points of view. We can do this by looking at news
sources with different political beliefs, stories published by people from other countries, those published by
people with different cultures, etc. Travelling and going to other places can also help.

General Notes

● Because she read only British/American books, that's what she believed writing was. that was all she
knew
● As soon as she was exposed to other varieties of books, her perspective expanded and she was able
to realize what she had been missing. She realized that people like her could be in stories.
● a single perspective can be something that we don't even notice until we have gained another
perspective
● single stories affect everyone, whether we know it or not
● single storied affect human connection
● Travel can help expand our perspective
● Literature and media can greatly influence our perspective, for good or bad
○ the most popular story will be dominant, hard to find other perspectives
○ access to these materials can influence perspective, when materials were not as accessible, it
was harder to get multiple perspectives
● Even educated people (like professors) can be affected by a single story
● once you recognize what a single story is, you can work to counteract it
○ she felt shame after buying into the single story of Mexicans, but she was able to recognize
what had happened
○ even if you recognize it, it can be hard to combat
● where you start in your story can affect perspective
● I really need to read American Psycho or give it back to the library…
● positive and negative stories need to be balanced, they both affect who you are equally
● robs people of dignity, makes equality difficult, emphasises differences not similarities
○ maybe if we wrote stories about how we are similar to other people, we would be more
understanding or empathetic towards those who are different
● some stories we prefer to forget, but perhaps those are the most important to remember
● we can repair the broken dignity with more diverse stories
● rejecting the single story allows us to regain a kind of paradise