A Single Story - 2.12.16

In Chimamanda Adiche's Ted Talk, A Single Story, she shows that for every country there is typically a single story about it. In other words a stereotype or common prejudice that the country or continent (in this case) is defined by. For example, she talks about how she had lived in the United States for a while and the media portrayed the Mexican country as a country where the citizens cross the border, get arrested at the border, and things like that. However, when she travelled to the country of Mexico and visited the city of Guadalupe she learned that in fact those stereotypes were completely opposite of what she expected. People had been laughing, smoking, and happy. She had felt ashamed of her thoughts because the thoughts were wrong and only of a single story. What a "Single Story" really means is just how a something is pictured or imagined to be. She shows that America does not have just a single story, but that there are many, because of American literature there are many views to the American life.