- In my opinion, a “single story” is a story that is being told based off a group of people with a similar background or perspective. A single story is written by one perspective so not everyone will be able to relate to it. Stereotypes and many false perceptions are created with single stories. A single story is a metaphor for the stereotypes that are being created about different groups and countries that people come from.
- Many of the stories that I read growing up were fictional and revolved around animals. Animals portrayed as animals and animals portrayed like people. When I did read stories with people and characters, many different races were included. I don’t remember reading any single-stories like Adichie described.
- Modern technology can definitely contribute to these single-stories. With today’s technology, people can share their opinions online about these single-stories. Since single-stories create false perceptions and stereotypes, people from all around the world can help clear up it up with their own experience and background.
- I feel that the issues that were spoken about in these two pieces are overlapping issues of identity. Adichie speaks about how growing up she has always read “single-stories”, stories that were based off of one perspective of a larger group. She never related to the stories she read that many others may have. With Mohamed, his school teacher corrected and taught him the “correct” way of saying his own name. Both of Adichie and Mohamed experienced cultural ignorance. Adichie read books with all the characters “white and blue-eyed” and did things she never did like speak about the weather or playing in snow. Mohamed should have been able to say his own name the way his parents do without having other people correct him on something that doesn’t need to be corrected.
