Contreras 1

Gissel Carmen Contreras

Shuv Raj Rana Bhat

ENGL 10803-005

October 24, 2023

Rhetorical Analysis of Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Danger of A Single Story”

Introduction (Claim)

In July of 2009, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivered a speech through

Ted Talk labeled “The danger of a single story”. In the TED Talk Adichie’s main claim is that a

single story can cause a danger to society as it can misconstrue the truth if it only illustrates an

incomplete story full of bias. Adichie goes further to point out that a single story can cause

people to perceive places, people, or things as something that might not be entirely true, causing

unnecessary pity, resentment, or disgust. Adichie uses many personal experiences, facts, and

quotes throughout her TED Talk to further show how a single story has led to many stereotypes

and misrepresentation.

Rhetorical Situation/Context:

In this rhetorical situation the speaker is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie's audience

consists of two groups, the primary audience were those who were face to face with Adichie at

the TED Conference while the secondary audience were those who visited and watched the video

of her speech through the TED Talk website. The purpose of Adichie’s Ted Talk was to inform

her audience about stereotypes and how these stereotypes lead people to believe things that

aren’t entirely true. To find this argument persuasive the audience has had to have had an

experience when they were told a story that led them to misperceive a situation, an example of

this would be the narrative that kids in Africa have little to no food and water. This is a
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misconceived notion because it leads people to believe that all of Africa has no food and water

even though there are wealthy countries in Africa and there are many people who have regular

meals and access to water.

Ethos:

The speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie displays credibility from the beginning of the

video. She begins to build her credibility in the beginning of her TED Talk speech by stating, “I

am a storyteller. And I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what I would like to

call ‘the danger of a single story’” (0:05-00:14). By telling us she is a storyteller, she is building

credibility as Adichie is a well known novelist who can dissect a story as she herself has written

many. Adichie has also built credibility by telling us her personal stories and experiences. From

the start Adichie goes on to mention how her mother would tell others that she began reading at

the age of two but then went on to tell the audience that her mom was exaggerating as “four is

probably closer to the truth” (0:22-0:25). The fact that she was honest and cleared up a

misconception with the audience displays credibility as she showcases her ability to be truthful.

Since Adichie was truthful at the beginning of her speech, the audience is more likely to trust the

next things she says, making it easier for them to be persuaded. She also goes on to tell us how

when she was growing up she would only read “British and American children's books” leading

her to write only about foreigners and their life as she believed “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” (0:28-1:59). This experience informed the audience just how “impressionable and

vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children” (1:32-1:35).

Logos
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Throughout this TED Talk, Adichie uses first hand and second hand experiences as well

as facts to further prove her claim to her audience. One personal experience she mentioned was a

misconception she held about Fide (her family's live-in domestic help) which was created based

on the remarks her mother would say. Adichie’s mother would only really mention that “his

family was very poor,” and when Adichie wouldn’t finish all her food her mother would say

“Finish your food! Don't you know? People like Fide's family have nothing"(3:14-3:30). This

one narrative surrounding Fide and his family led Adichie to feel unnecessary pity for them as

Adichie could only see Fide’s family as poor. This narrative that Adichie held in her mind soon

changed when she visited Fide’s village and saw the beautiful basket Fide's brother made. It was

after this visit that Adichie realized that the single story led her to confine Fide’s family to just

being poor when in reality they were way more than that single story, which further highlights

her claim. Towards the end of her Ted Talk she also brings in facts and statistics about Africa to

further her claim. Adichie states, “Africa is a continent full of catastrophes: There are immense

ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo and depressing ones such as the fact the 5,000 people

apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria. But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe,

and it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them” (13:15- 13:37). This

statement illustrates that although there has been a bad connotation associated with Africa, the

continent also has great stories and news as the bad connotation is only a small side of what

Africa really is as a continent. This last section about Africa furthermore pushes her claim as it

also highlights just how the stereotype has subjected Africa to being something that is not

entirely representative.

Pathos:
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Adichie uses humor throughout her speech to capture the audience's attention as well to

point out just how ridiculous these single stories, these misconceptions, and these stereotypes

truly are as they lead us to believe things that couldn’t be further from the truth. An experience

that invoked the most laughter in this TED Talk was one Adichie experienced in college with her

roommate. The instance that invoked laughter during her story telling of the experience was

when she mentioned that her roommate asked “if she could listen to what she called my ‘tribal

music’, and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey”

(4:25-4:34).

Although this part was the one that invoked the audience's emotions through laughter, Adichie

also mentioned the emotions both she and her roommate felt during this experience. Adichie

states that “She [her roommate] had felt sorry for me even before she saw me. Her default

position towards me… was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning pity. [The narrative of Africa

that she had embedded in her head led her to believe that] 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” (4:42- 5:13). Another experience that invoked the audience's

laughter was one that happened at university that Adichie had spoken to note too long before

giving her TED Talk speech. At the university one of the students made a remark along the lines

of “[it’s] such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character… [in

Adichie’s Novel]” (10:46-10:55). Adichie responded to the student by saying she had just read “a

novel called ‘American Psycho’ and that it was such a shame that young Americans were serial

murderers” (10:57-11:11). This experience evoked laughter because it was ridiculous to think

that just because a character in a book does something, such as abuse or murder, that then all

men from Nigeria were abusers or that all young Americans are murderers. Both of these
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experiences ultimately show how ridiculous these single stories can cause us to perceive other

people, places, or things from a narrow view.

Use of semiotic resources

The speaker uses verbal modes throughout the whole video to prove her case and would

find a way to incorporate humor to highlight how stories can lead people to believe redundant

things because a single story doesn't tell the both sides or the whole story. One thing Adichie did

throughout the whole video was use facial expressions and body movement to accentuate her

points. Some facial expressions that Adichie would do are raising her eyebrows, widening her

eyes, and lowering her eyebrows to match the emotion of her experiences. I also noticed that she

would take brief pauses to allow the audience to take in things and concepts. All together these

verbal modes as well as her body language allowed for her speech to be attention grabbing and

entertaining enough for her audience to actively listen and focus to her speech from beginning to

end so that they are persuaded by the end of the speech.

Conclusion (evaluate how or whether the ted talk was effective in persuasion)

I overall thought that Chimamanda Adichie's argument was very effective in persuasion.

Throughout the entirety of the TED Talk Adichie would again and again state her claim, that one

sided story can lead to misconceptions that are harmful. Adichie would also back up her claims

with detailing proof such as personal experiences and facts. I would also say that Adichie did a

good job at addressing her audience. For one, Adichie was able to keep her audience interested

by telling personal experiences that invoked inquiry and laughter from them. Another thing

Adichie did to captivate her audience was to include experiences that many people can relate to

such as talking about being tied to a stereotype.

Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story.” TED Talks, 7 Oct. 2009,

www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language

=en.