The Danger of a Single Story

As a speech, “The Danger of a Single Story” is written to be heard, not read. One of the ways Adichie makes her points clear and memorable for her audience is through repetition. In providing examples of single stories, Adichie consistently uses the same phrase to communicate this key idea. She says that she was “saved […] from having a single story of what books are” (2:28), and that Fide’s family’s “poverty was [her] single story of them” (3:35). Describing her American roommate, she recalls, “My 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” (04:41). Over and over again, Adichie uses the phrase “single story,” defining it and connecting it to clear examples. After hearing the speech just one time, listeners can therefore identify Adichie’s concept of “the single story” and understand what she means by it. 

Throughout her speech, Adichie uses juxtaposition to contrast a flat, single story with alternative views. Adichie’s experience in Mexico is one example of this. Through American media, Adichie encountered “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” (8:12).