Video Reflection Answers #1: the Single Story Problem

Video Reflection Answers #1: The Single Story Problem 

Anthropology 202

1. What is the single story that Ms. Adichie refers to in her talk? Give her examples.

According to Ms. Adichie, the single story is where a person or culture is defined by the one characteristic which people see and think it is the only one that represents the person or culture in any case. It is indeed what we call stereotype. For example, being Asian, people will look as me as I am supposed to be good at math without getting to know me. Along with her talk, one of Ms. Adichie’s single story examples is that in her early childhood, at the age of seven, because she was writing exactly what she read in Western books, she started to write. All her characters had white skins and blue eyes, ate apples and loved talking about the weather. Another interesting single story example of Ms. Adichie is when she gave a speech at one university; a student told her “that it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in her novel.” Because in that one novel which the student read about the Nigerian father character who was a physical abuser, therefore the student determined all Nigerian men are physical abusers. It is what Ms. Adichie called “single story”.

2. Why is it a problem to have only a single story about a person or culture?

Ms. Adichie said: “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”

A story of a person or culture is built from a lot of stories, therefore using only a single story to judge a person or culture is not enough, otherwise the whole idea about a person or culture is subjective based on a single story. It is a problem to have only a single story about a person or culture because it is not only incomplete but also gives readers an unfair, incorrect view about a person or culture.

3. Why would it be...