The danger of a single story - Adichie

• The danger of a single story

  Adichie's main argument is that it is extremely harmful to provide one narrative about a person or a culture, as this can lead to a great misunderstanding of different cultures
• The use of the word 'danger' foreshadows Adichie's main argument
• The speech has a cautionary tone, which is important to keep in mind as Adichie uses humor, but has an underlying important message
• Story


  A metaphor for stereotypes, which Adichie is trying to expose as fiction not based on evidence
• The speech is informative as Adichie shares her personal experiences, but overall she is trying to persuade the audience to reflect on their own actions and perceptions of different cultures
• Adichie's video has over 15 million views, indicating a diverse audience that can access it online and understand English
• Personal pronoun 'I'


  Immediately engages the audience as Adichie shares personal stories
• Adichie establishes credibility by being honest and modest about her early reading and writing abilities
• Adichie juxtaposes her childhood experiences reading British and American children's books with her actual life in Nigeria


  To highlight how different the stories were from her reality
• Emotive language


  Used to demonstrate how impressionable and vulnerable we are to stories, particularly as children
• Adichie uses the collective pronoun 'we'

  To encourage a sense of unity with the audience
• Adichie references African authors like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye to establish her credibility and authority on the topic
• Adichie's careful language choice

  She compliments the American and British books she read to avoid putting off any members of the audience
• Adichie uses the word 'saved' in contrast to 'danger'


  To highlight the great possibility stories have to both harm and help
• Adichie's personal experiences


  • Her family's live-in domestic help, Fide, and her American roommate's misconceptions about Nigeria
• Adichie critiques her own stereotyping of Fide's family, showing that everyone can stereotype and making her more relatable to the audience
• Single story


  Seeing a people or place as only one thing, over and over again
• Rejecting the single story

  Regains a kind of paradise
• Stories can be used to dispossess and malign, but also to empower and humanize
• Stories can break the dignity of a people, but also repair that broken dignity
• Alice Walker: 'When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise'
• The writer is emphasizing the shared responsibility in rejecting the single story
• The writer is highlighting the great possibility and power of stories when told correctly