A single-story means a story that grabs a lot of people’s attention that is only told in a way that represents one single thing, place, country, or an individual and made to only see one perspective. A metaphor is a way to compare something, for example, “the snow is a white blanket”, even though it’s being compared it is not alike it helps make it a clearer picture in the reader’s mind.

The types of stores I had to read were all fairy tales and picture books such as Cinderella. I often read this because I loved the plot story when I was a kid. Cinderella is the main character facing her evil stepmom and sister, she’s forced to do all the house chores and lives in poor condition while her family is living wealthy. Cinderella later falls in love with a prince when she got the chance to go to the ball. The trope for this storybook is that it involves magic and spells which do not exist. I think that they were guilty of portraying a single-story such as Adichie describes because it only shows perception and how the characters are mainly white in most Disney fairytale movies, snow-white, rapunzel, and beauty and the beast which the story only revolves around falling in love with princes.

Yes, modern technology does as the internet, websites, media all contribute to these single-stories in a way because technology today shares more perspective of stories and more information about the single-stories that can help give some background context. I believe that these two pieces speak about the overlapping issues of identity because it’s about the identity crisis and about how they feel uncomfortable in their skin and being taught the “American” way to understand what is right and wrong.

I think a single story is only half true. The metaphor behind this is that a single story labeled it a person, ethnicity, race, or country by not showing the whole picture, denying the possibility of showing the beauty, opportunity, and extraordinary of the real or full story.

When I grew up I did not have literature from my country El Salvador. I remember that I have a book called “El Silabario” where obviously I learned the ABC in Spanish. My childhood was a little different because when I was the older sister and I needed to help my mom with cooking, washing (by hand), and of course going to school. Unfortunately, many parents did not send their children to school because older children need to help their parents to work to have a decent life or at least the basics. My parents, for example, learned to read and write when they were adults. However, my father always encourages my siblings and me to study. I have access to some books, but we live in a village so there wasn’t much access to many options.

In my opinion, modern technology contributes to unique stories. I’m from El Salvador, and most of the time when you heard other people referring to Salvadorans they called “salvatruchas” labeling all Salvadorans as members of gangs. One of the largest gangs in Central America and other countries in general. However, that is not true, it is just a single story, just one side, and most of the time just bad things or the dark side of a story. Adichie mentioned in her talk that “a single story creates a stereotype,” which means the story is incomplete because we are only looking at one side of the story. The example she used about her trip to Mexico is a clear illustration of how others planted a misconception in her head about others. Mohamed’s story also when people questioned where he is coming from just because of the color of his eyes. 

Bonus: People sometimes think I’m from Russia because of my name. Most people called me “Zendaya” and I had no idea how I was until I saw a movie with my children and they told me. When I was little, I didn’t like my name. I felt it was a very strong name for a baby, but now I love my name, I feel that it is special. My name is still not popular even among Hispanics. 

For me, a single story is one in which there is no other alternative. What is told to us is the only fact that is “needed” to know. I think as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had said there are more than one side of every story but there is a narrative that needs to be driven. When I think of single stories, I think of propaganda. Propaganda is an extremely useful tool to drive a narrative in a direction that is needed. Often times in materials that promote propaganda, you only get one side of the story and that side is probably going to shine a negative light.

I have never been much of a reader, most of the books and stories I had read growing up were what was assigned to me in my classes. I do however, remember reading stories with young white male protagonists, living in a quiet suburban area who has to venture out and fulfill a destiny they think they have. Now alternatively I remember books about black and Hispanic children, and those stories all seemed to have a similar theme. And that was self acceptance. To this day it is bizarre to me that authors feel the need to help people of color find self love and to be comfortable in their skin. Do not get me wrong I understand why it happens. I think it goes back to the single story narrative that gets pushed on people of color. As unfair as it is, people of color get demonized in the media. So these stories that are written for acceptance are there to show the other sides of how you do not have to be ashamed or embarrassed.

Modern technology 100% contributes to single stories. I believe this because of how easy it is to just spout whatever it is you want on the internet with little to no repercussions. Facebook for example is a cesspool of people trying to convince one another that their story is the only story that is acceptable. Constantly posting articles or comments that only align with their line of thinking, and anything else is wrong. The more people that use platforms such as Facebook and see those same articles posted time and time again, I think the easier it is for people to fall in line and see that story as undeniable truth.

I believe both articles are speaking about overlapping issues of identity. I think both articles are speaking on perceived stereotypes that are often found with each race and ethnicity. Mohamed Hassan’s spoken word poem was very impactful with relaying this message I feel. He understands the negative connotations with having a very “Muslim” name.

I can relate to this to a certain degree. My last name is Cuomo which as we all know is the governors surname. When I meet people for the first time and they see my last name, immediately their eyes light up and they’ll look at me and ask the same question every time. “Are you related to the governor?”. They are always so giddy too. Until I tell them there is no relation and my last name had come from my grandfather who was adopted into that last name. That is always followed by a look of disappointment.

1. In my words i think that a single story is a certain type of story that talks about the negative aspects of a country making them seem dumb, poor, etc. Like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the ted talk she talked about how her mother only talked about how fied was poor making her believe that fied’s family was only poor and nothing else and also how Americans  misjudge africans throughout history making us believe that they are uncivilized and always fighting making us pity them. These show that a single story can make stereotypes making us believe that just one story about someone makes us think of the whole country  chimamanda  gave us a good example by talking about a student who told her that he felt bad she has an abusive father which is a stereotype he believed after reading a story about a single person.
2. I grew up reading stories about fictional characters like the three little pigs, Winnie the pooh, mickey mouse, cinderella, snow white etc. To be honest i forgot about most of the plots from some of the stories but in fictional comics like these the author portrays the protagonist or in this case the(princess or the three pigs  ) who always faces a problem and then gets a happy ending i think this does portray a single story like Adichie described because in these stories its always a happy ending making kids optimistic that there will be a prince in shining armor or a fairy to help them but in reality these kids will grow up to realize that its not true and it will not always be a happy ending like in the stories.
3. Yes i believe that modern technologies do contribute to these single stories because these day in our phone, computer and even the news show only the bad side of something for example whenever we look at the news they always show the negative aspects of something to gain more people to watch but i have never seen any positive sides of the story and the same goes with social media and youtube they all show only the negative aspects of countries like Africa etc but never the positive. And just like Adichie said there are talented and smart people everywhere you just need to give them a chance. One day i was scrolling through youtube looking at engineers and people building technologies and came across this one video that really blew my mind there was a kid i’m not sure where he came from because i forgot but he was incredible because even though he came from a country with little resources he still managed to learn by reverse engineering technologies that had been thrown out and he even got a chance to go to MIT and work with all of them they were also blown away by his intelligence at such a young age.
4. These two pieces are overlapping issues because the ted talk talks about a single story and how it can create stereotypes of many people just based on a single story or person while Hassans story talks about how he was mistaken as white and how he was forced to pronounce his own name by his teacher he told us how he took 19 years to pronounce his own name given to him by his mother.
5. BONUS= The story surrounding my name is simple when my mom and dad had me they gave me the name Yeshi Wangchuk because there was once a high priest whose name was also Yeshi Wangchuk they gave me this name while wishing i have a good life and live honestly.

1. I think a single story refers to certain stereotypes about things or people in different countries. People can’t know a person or a thing completely. What people know about a thing or a person is either from what other people say about it, or from a book that has some description of its life or facts, or from the news, none of which can give a complete view of a person or a thing. It is a metaphor for the fact that people cannot know the truth about a person or a thing, and that people are easily influenced by all kinds of information from the internet and have incorrect opinions and ideas about a thing or a country.

2. I grew up reading not many stories, most of them are fairy tales, such as Snow White and Cinderella, most of these stories are about a girl who will have some accidents, life is very hard, or meet some bad guys, such as stepmother and sister, but will be very optimistic, and when in trouble she will meet a person to help her, such as the prince or other characters will appear to protect her. I think this kind of story was kind of guilty of portraying a single-story such as Adichie describes, because each time it describes a girl facing unfair treatment or encountering some accident, there will always be a person there for her, helping her to solve all her problems, giving me the feeling that it also says that one must go through some difficulties or challenges in order to have a good and happy life in the future.  

3. I do think modern technology somehow contributes to these single-stories because a lot of people are now learning about things or people of other nationalities through cell phones, computers, all electronic devices that have the Internet, where people can watch videos or news reports about other countries. However, in the news or a video, it is not possible to fully understand what a person is like or what an event is like, because the news always reports something that attracts attention, such as murder or violence, they do not report on the life of any normal person, and in a video, the producer shows the video may be only a part of it, something attractive and argumentative, instead of a complete video, and that is what contributes to a single story.

4. I think these two pieces are speaking about overlapping issues of identity because Adichie’s speech talks about how people are influenced by what they have learned, seen, and heard when dealing with others and thus have preconceived ideas, while in Hassan’s video, it talks about having a name that is supposed to be white thus giving others preconceived ideas about him and thinking he should be a white man with blue eyes, which shows another kind of single story.

I can relate  myself to Mohamed Hassan’s poem “Unlearning my Name”. I was impressed that there is someone who made a poem about this topic, he is brilliant. My teachers were trying to do their best to make me happy pronouncing my name last 16 years. I heard several versions of it, you name it. I loved my name even more, because it was my identity and I would not change it. I can understand also how difficult is to pronounce new name, and it is obvious when people are exposed to new foreign name, mistakes are inevitable.

Adichie’s ted talk was incredible and interesting. She described how can one single story crate chaos in our perception. She is utterly talented. After listening to her, i started thinking about my childhood, how was my imagination about single stories. I would red fairy tale from different story tellers specially I adored the brothers Grimm. I would like to bring one example from fairy story. I am from republic of Georgia and I was introduced to typical Russian folk tale, I am sure that every child knew and read about it in Russia.  She was character of supernatural female, her name was “ Baba Yaga”. she was an ugly old woman with a long nose, she lived in the forest in small house, which was standing on chicken legs.  When I was little girl, I truly believed that there is somewhere “angry grandmother”, and she will hurt me if I will enter into her house. When I became older my perception changed, luckily my frontal lobe was developing properly. I was not anymore petrified of “Baba Yaga”.

Is it inappropriate to judge a person or nation only after reading or listening single story?  How many times we would imagine something incorrectly because we do not try to get underneath? I was asked many times if in Georgia people had toilet inside. I was not embarrassed but was     surprised because many times they had no clue where Georgia was, but  they were brave enough to ask me that weird question.

In a ted talk with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie called “The danger of a single story”, she talks about what a single story is and gives us various examples. To me, a single-story defines as a story created based on the interpretation and judgment of a person or a group of people, turning it into a perspective of your own, making them seem like your judgment. A single-story can be a metaphor for stereotypes because in a way it represents a symbol that’s these single stories become stereotypes which according to Chimamanda they are incomplete and it makes one story become the only story.

The stories that I read growing up were mainly fictional characters such as Cinderella, the three Billy goats gruff, Goldilocks, Corduroy, and The princess and the frog. In the book of Cinderella, she was a servant for her stepmother and stepsisters. They treated her poorly and she had to do everything for them from cleaning to cooking. Growing up seeing and reading about how Cinderella did mainly house chores that I was supposed to do the same. I’m guilty of creating a single story of what is expected of me as a female. Also reading the Princess and the frog was the same thing. Tiana was a black Disney character who at the beginning of the story worked as a waitress and was practically poor so it made me version a single story that women serve food because she was classified as a waitress.

I do believe that modern technology has an effect and plays a role in creating some of these single stories because the media only focuses on one incomplete story. Mainly in social media, I always see a specific group of people classified as something which is not entirely true. For example, on social media platforms, many people criticize what a woman wears and calls them rude names. A person creates a single story from only their interpretation and judgment and it’s posted on the media which people read and make it the only story to believe. It can also be that many people aren’t educated enough on a certain topic which makes them believe only one story.

These two videos are talking about overlapping issues of identity because the Ted talk video talks about how we identify someone from our own terms and create a single story but everyone has a different single story. Since everyone creates their own single story, it overlaps each other meaning some stories can be stereotypical of a person or a group and others are not. This creates several issues of identity.

Bonus: The story about my name is simple, it’s a typical name but it’s spelled differently. My name is spelled “Deisi” but the sound of it out loud is “Daisy”. According to my parents, my mom wanted to name me a name of a flower which wasn’t a daisy, it was “Dahlia”. However, my dad didn’t agree with that name, and when the nurse came and asked for my name my mom ended up saying “Daisy”. But the nurse spelled it differently which is why my name is spelled that way.

 

A single story is having only one idea of a place, an event, or a group of people. The metaphor for it is reading a book on something and believing that it can only be that way. This happens because in books or media things are viewed in one major perspective instead of showing other perspectives in order to show the whole truth of the place or group of people. Most of the books that were read to me when I was a kid were books that had animals as the main character. Books like “Chrysanthemum”, Franklin the Turtle series, The Berenstain Bears, and” If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”, which played into a part that I didn’t identify the characters to real life because I knew the characters were acting human-like instead of how they act in real life. The plots were always having a self-esteem issue or losing something and getting resolved at the end. I guess the single story that I absorbed was that books were always imaginative. I believe they were not guilty in making me believe that a group of people were a certain way because it wasn’t portrayed by any humans. I think modern technology definitely plays a part in a single story because like mentioned in the TEDTalk when one searches up Africa it shows nice landscapes and people starving, rarely can find people who have established homes and are not starving with one Google search of Africa. Also, the stereotype roles that played in movies and tv shows for each race plays into a single story. Seeing the same races acting the same way in each movie makes it feel like all people in that race are like that. These two pieces are speaking about overlapping issues because Mohamed was facing the reality of a single story that people with that name only look a certain way and can’t have blue eyes or look like a white man.

Bonus: The story surrounding my name is that although my name starts with a Y, it is supposed to be pronounced with a J because in the Spanish language Y’s have J sounds sometimes. So many times I have just allowed my name to be mispronounced because it is just easier than having to explain.