Single Stories Examples Based on Chimamanda Adichie's TED Talk
The TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” of a Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie is reviewed in one of the single stories examples essay paper. She says, “Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.”
Sitting in my World Literature class I began realizing the points Adichie was making about how easily stereotypes and prejudices can form when only a single story is presented about a collective group of people. Based on my looks, my last name, I’ve fallen victim to the dangers of Asian stereotypes and how based on these factors one can easily come to conclusions of the type of person I am expected to be. But there is more behind my slanted eyes, yellow skin, and dark hair that the single story of Asians fails to perceive.
I am three fourths Korean and a quarter Mexican. I am a descent of Korean and Mexican immigrants, a product of the sacrifices my relatives endured in order to provide a better standard of living from their future generations. I am the daughter of a Korean woman born in Brazil who throughout my life has incorporated different cultural values of her home country and has taught me the importance of accepting different cultures as my own. I am an example of why believing in the single story is inaccurate for some and how dangerous it is to place individuals into categories when there may be more than the eye can see. An individual is made up of more than just their ethnicity or race, they are made up of the stories and history of their ancestors before them, all of which make up what they consider their identity.
The stories of how my grandparents immigrated to America greatly impacts my identity as a Korean/Mexican/American and it has made me appreciate the endurance of people and the history that their lives have to offer. My Mexican grandmother at the young age of 16 left her hometown of Tumbiscatio, Mexico to work in Los Angeles as a maid trying to earn money to send back to her family. It was in Los Angeles that she met my Korean grandfather who had just immigrated from Argentina and previously Korea after the war. My grandparents received a lot of backlash from relatives who didn’t support their interracial marriage and it took a lot of time and effort to normalize their relationship within our family. As you can see, the history of my family isn’t made of a single story but of a multitude of them that when combined help reveal more about a person than one expected.
Chimamanda Adichie later explains the power storytelling holds by saying, “How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power.” I find this true with the power of film and cinema. In the film industry writers, directors and producers are able to take a story and invoke great emotions within the audience and engage them into it’s world. Ever since I was a kid I’ve admired the magnitude of a powerful story and how something so simple could impact and resonate with you so much. As my interest in film flourished I began to gain a greater appreciation for the process of film and what it takes to create a story of your own for others to see through your eyes. I began making short edits of artists I enjoyed on an app called Vine and eventually began experimenting with IMovie creating and editing longer videos of family vacations and special events. I fell in love with the ability to create your own story through the power of film and its processes. As there are a magnitude of untold stories similar to the story of how my grandparents met I feel motivated to find a way to make them known.
In conclusion, as someone who comes from different cultures I find that it’s important to be open and accepting of the many ethnicities that make up our world today and I believe that through film it is possible to have greater representation of our world’s diversity. Through the power of film and the ability to communicate emotions, values, and ideas with individuals all around the world, future generations can avoid the dangers of creating a single story.
