A Danger of A Single Story Flashcards
(11 cards)
what was the purpose of Danger of a Single Story?
Adiche aims to argue her point of view and the damages that being ignorant and biased can have
what was the audience of Danger of a Single Story?
Members of the TED Talks audience both in person and over the internet. People who are interested in listening to ideas about topics including global issues
what was the form of Danger of a Single Story?
It was a TED-X speech
what is the tone used in Danger of a Single Story?
Adiche adopts a very personal, empathetic and reflective tone when discussing her views on the power of storytelling
what is the effect of the title “Danger of a single story”?
- foreshadowing, foreboding tone: “danger” shows how being biased can be harmful
- emotive language: “danger”, creates a sense of urgency and emphasis on its harms
- metaphor for stereotyping: “Single story”
what is the effect of the first line “I’m a storyteller.”
- short, declarative sentence: “I’m a storyteller.” is effective as she is establishing a rapport with the audience as this adds credibility (ETHOS), showing that her role as a storyteller is essential for the story
what is the effect of “: all my characters were white and blue eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out”
- listing + long, convoluted sentence: she aimed to use listing to reflect and mirror how boring the characters were
- colon: was used to prepare for the long, boring list ahead
- repetition: “they” was constantly used as it shows how foreign and alienated she felt compared to white people
what are examples of emotive language throughout the text and what is its effect?
- “impressionable and vulnerable”: shows how ignorance and the lack of diversity is ingrained into children
- “I discovered African books”: the use of the word “discovered” is emotive as it creates this sense of importance for African literature, where it seems as though African children were brainwashed by western books and having access to an alternate perspective became an important discovery for them
- “it saved me”: shows how she changed her perspective from being ignorant about her culture and now being able see the truth about her culture
what is the effect of the following line “We didn’t have snow, we ate mangos, and we never talked about the weather”
- juxtaposition: contrast between pronoun “we” when describing her real lifestyle and “they” when describing the western characters she wrote about shows how her stories were just a figment of imagination and in reality, her life was never like that
- repetition of inclusive pronoun: “we” is used repetitively to evoke a sense of unity between her and her familiar Nigerian culture, shows how comfortable she is
what is the effect of the following line “My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe”
- parallel sentence structure in “single story..: a single story…” shows how easy it is to replace a perspective with skewed, stereotypical views instead.
- anaphora in “a single story… a single story” draws emphasis on the lies and harm that having a single perspective has
what is the effect of the final line “when we realise that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise”
- allusion to writer Alice Walker: “we regain a kind of paradise” adds credibility and authenticity to her words
- “we regain a kind of paradise” also shows her edenic vision, where she is able to perceive and imagine an idyllic world that will never have a single story, reflecting her aims and her wishes for the world, making it an effective ending sentence
