TED Talk
Video Response
Gregory Rutbell
1 November 2013
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide
Campus
View the TED video Chimamanda Adichie: The danger
of a single story. Adichie
uses several episodes from her own life's story to deliver her powerful
message. User your blog to reflect on Adichie's message. How do you view her
message in terms of what you have learned in this module? The TED video was told with full
emotional force. Why? Chimamandad Adichie told her story from personal
experience and observation. Her story became how, why and when she learned it.
She demonstrated perseverance. She has loved and she has lost. Ordinary lives
are punctuated by extraordinary moments. Her story inspired and motivated
others (audience) to action. She shared her story with full emotional force.
She relived, not retold, her story by re-creating her experiences on the stage.
Authentic characters are the basis for any riveting story. By identifying with
specific character traits, listeners imagine themselves and people they care
about as the protagonists. She invited the audience into her story to relive it
with her by reenacting characters and their reactions. This includes what is
heard, the tone of voice, what is implied, character traits and desires. Real
dialogue is more powerful when it conveys the deeper meaning of true emotions
and desires. She also brought the audience into the setting to relive the
story. (Donovan, 2014) Chimamandad
Adichie used a springboard story to communicate a complex new idea and inspire
action to implement it. This is what leadership is about - inspiring people to
implement a new ideas in the future. And
not with hesitation but with drive and passion, because they believe in it. The
change idea she communicated with her story was clear and worthwhile. Her story
was based on actual examples where the change was successfully implemented
(it's a true story), positive, and told in minimal fashion. (Denning, 2011) Nigerian author Chimamandad Adichie
in her speech at the TED lecturer on "The Danger of a Single Story" illustrates the negative
effects that knowing just what media and books portray about a specific country
may have on people who are from that background. The single story therefore can
be linked with the magic bullet theory where whatever one see in the media they
believe it to be true. (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013) From the single story that media had
of Africa individuals in the USA looked down on them since they had the frame
that Africans were black, poor and starving people within society waiting for some
"white" kind man to come to their rescue. However, this was not so
since Adichie proved this to her roommate who she made mention of in her speech
who was somewhat patronizing towards her because she was living in the dilemma
of the single story that they have on Africa. (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013) Adichie faced many obstacles
throughout her career and this of course was caused by the single story. It was
not natural for a Nigerian (African) to want to become a writer and due to the
fact that she was exposed to so many British novels at a tender age she was
influenced by their characters she wrote her stories like the ones she read.
However, she was exposed to African Literature at a late stage since she wasn't
aware that people of her kind could be story characters. What shocked me the
most was the fact that her professor told her that her story is not authentically
African due to the fact that her characters reminded him too much of the life
he was living that Africans are supposed to be starving and this once again
goes back to the single story. (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013) It is not that the
single story is not true it is the fact that it is not complete hence one
should not come to a conclusion about anywhere based on a single story. In
addition, the consequences of a single story include: incomplete information
and data, robs people of dignity, recognition of equal humanity difficult and
emphasis is how we are different and not similar. "When we reject the
single story, when we realize there is never a single story to any place we
will regain paradise." Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many
overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how of how
she found her authentic cultural voice and warns that if we hear only a single
story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Inspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent
generations of westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novels and stories are
jewels in the crown of literature. (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013) Quotes
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: "The
single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that
they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the
only story." (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes, 2013) "How
stories are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told
- are really dependent on power." (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes,
2013) "Stories matter. Many
stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories
can also be used to empower and harmonize. Stories can break the dignity of a
people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity." (Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie Quotes, 2013) "Show people as one
thing - as only one thing - over and over again, and that is what they
become." (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes, 2013)
References
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The danger of a single
story (TED Talks: Ideas worth spreading). Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html.
Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie. Transcript for Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story
(Dotsub). Retrieved from
http://dotsub.com/view/63ef5d28-6607-4fec-b906-aaae6cff7dbe/viewTranscript/eng.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes (Goodreads). Retrieved from
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/11291.Chimamanda_Ngozi_Adichie.
Denning, Stephen (2011). The
Leader's Guide to Storytelling - Mastering The Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).
Donovan, Jeremey (2014). How To
Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World's Most Inspiring Presentations. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Education.
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