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Elise R. Osborne

Prof. Derek Ellis

English 101

Rhetorical Analysis

16 October 2017

TEDTalk: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - The Danger of a Single Story

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies TEDtalk speech is based around the theme of a "The

Danger of a Single Story, which, throughout her speech, really mentions the dangers of

stereotyping against others. Stereotyping is usually an often and unfair belief that many people

have about other people or things of a certain trait or aspect. Adichies speech symbolizes those

stories or perceptions that Americans have on Africans, and that Americans have on other

cultures as well. She recounts these stories through the use of the rhetorical appeals of ethos

and pathos and her diction to bring awareness to these stereotypes that are shown throughout

society and all over the world. The purpose of Adichies TEDTalk is to show how stereotypes

occur based on social media and how they do not show the entire story of a person or place. She

urges that these stereotypes either stop or should show the positives along with the negatives.

Adichie alludes to the time when, as a child, she wrote stories about the books that she

had been reading. During her speech, she uses an ethical approach to show her credibility

because she says...I had read books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced

that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in them and had to be about things with

which I could not personally identify (Adichie 00:01:44). This builds her credibility to the
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readers or viewers because she explains that the way she grew up, there was only one race or

normalcy in literature. As a result, she felt obligated to write those books because that was her

sense of normalcy. This story shows the stereotypical book where there is one race so another

person, in this example Adichie herself had to conform to the norm and write about what she

read because she felt that it was unjust to write about what they wanted to or about their own

culture. Another example is when Adichie talks about the immigration debate in America. She

says There were endless stories of Mexicans as people who were fleecing the healthcare system,

sneaking across the border, being arrested at the border, that sort of thing (Adichie 00:08:21).

This story exemplifies the hispanic stereotype because in American society, one can believe

the Mexican immigrants are trouble because of their history in traveling to the United States. It

strengthens her credibility because she later admits that she too had bought into the stereotype

against Mexicans that social media had portrayed.

When Adichie attended a university in the United States, she had met her American

roommate who she claims was shocked by her. Based on American media, African is

portrayed as ...a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals, and incomprehensible people,

fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves and waiting

to be saved by a kind, white foreigner (Adichie 00:05:56). This shows the pathetic appeal

because Adichie explains that because her roommate had a single story of Africa, she felt sorry

fro Adichie before she had even met her. Her thoughts towards Adichie were of pity because

according to Adichie her roommate ...had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe.

In this single story, there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way, no

possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals
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(Adichie 00:04:49). Her pathetic appeal with her roommate is shown again because usually in

American media, Africa is shown as hungry, with diseases such as AIDS or HIV, or

needing a donation and not shown as prospering, talented, or beautiful. This explains

why her roommate had felt pity towards Adichie since America media would negatively

stereotype Africa and not show it in a positive light for its hope, compassion, and beauty.

Through the entire speech, diction can be found in Adichies in how she lines up her

speech. For example, Adichie says The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of

dignity (Adichie 00:13:45). Her use of the word rob conveys a stronger meaning in the

sentence because if Adichie were to use the word takes, it would not have the same effect as

the word rob does. The word rob entitles that someone is taking something away forcibly

whereas the word take implies that someone takes something and will eventually give it back to

the rightful owner. Another example is when Adichie asks What if my roommate knew about

the female lawyer who recently went to court in Nigeria to challenge a ridiculous law that

required women to get their husbands consent before renewing their passports? (Adichie

00:16:06). Her use of the words female and ridiculous in the sentence makes is seem more

important than how someone could look at it if the words were not included. If she were to say

a lawyer, then the audience could easily suspect that the lawyer could be a male or a female. If

she were to say challenge a law instead of challenge a ridiculous law, it does not have the

same emergent response which is why she chose such words to amplify the meaning and tone of

the sentences. In addition, another way of her use of stereotypes is when she emphasizes that

people have to start with the positive stories instead of the negative ones so that people can get

an idea of the entire story of that person or place and not have a one-sided negative stereotype.
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In the TEDTalk given by Chimamanda Adichie, she sets a valiant tone throughout her

speech. In this speech, she spoke in a convincing manner to her audience the many different

ways that people stereotype other people. Adichie provides her personal stories and her lessons

learned about stereotyping through the use of the rhetoric appeals and diction to open the

audiences eyes to how they stereotype and that they should probably stop stereotyping

completely.
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Work Cited

The Danger of a Single Story. TEDTalk, July 2009,

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story