![]() The helicopter, which they see is from a Norwegian research base, flies in and lands. The dog runs toward an American research base, Outpost 31, where a 12-man research crew is getting ready for the upcoming winter. The man riding next to the pilot shoots a rifle and drops grenades hoping to kill the dog. In Antarctica, during the winter of 1982, a helicopter flies hurriedly after a husky. Whether or not the ship crashes or lands on Earth is unknown. In the opening shot, an alien spaceship flies through space and enters Earth's atmosphere near Antarctica. MacReady sets out to find the answers to exactly that. Who is infected already, and who can be trusted? Helicopter pilot R.J. They manage to fight it off, but they come to a terrible conclusion: an alien with the power to transform and take the appearance of anybody else is amongst them. It is only then that the clues begin to add up the dog morphs horribly into a strange creature that attacks the researchers. They also discover a mangled body that looks as though it was once that of a person, which they bring back with them for further study. ![]() On arrival, they find that the place has been totally destroyed. A team of Americans are sent to the Norwegian base and find out what has happened. The helicopter has Norwegian markings, must be from the Norwegian base not too far from their own. When the helicopter is destroyed and the passengers are killed, the dog is let into the base and the Americans begin to wonder what has actually happened. She professes that the rejection of the single story phenomenon allows one to “regain a kind of paradise” and see people as more than just one incomplete idea (Adichie 18:17).In the midst of the Antartican snowfield, the scientists and workers of a small American research base are shocked when a helicopter begins to circle their camp, chasing and shooting at a dog. Her conclusion responds to these misconceptions by reiterating the importance of spreading diverse stories in opposition to focusing on just one. Adichie explains how she became enlightened through “the discovery of African writers”, which “saved from having a single story of what books are” and becoming another victim of a biased sample of literature (02:36).Īdichie puts her speech in a nutshell stating that “to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become” (09:25). This is why the first stories Adichie had written included white characters playing in the snow rather than things reflective of her life in Africa (Adichie 00:39). Additionally, influential western stories have caused people like Adichie to have a limited idea of characters that appear in literature, since foreigners were not part of them. Using power to manipulate our understanding of others can be evidenced by Adichie’s trip to Mexico, where she realized Mexicans were not the harmful Americans Western media had portrayed them to be. Adichie states that power can be used for malintent, through controlling “how are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told” (09:25). Power not only spreads a story, but also makes its ideas persist. These anecdotes emphasize how stereotypes are formed due to incomplete information, but one story should not define a group of people.Īdichie also tackles the effect of political and cultural power on stories. ![]() ![]() Due to the strong media coverage on Mexican immigration she “had bought into the single story”, automatically associating all Mexicans with immigration (Adichie 08:53). Adichie also clearly faults herself for also being influenced by the “single story” epidemic, showing that she made the same mistake as many others. Reflecting on her everyday life, she recalls a time where her college roommate had a “default position” of “well-meaning pity” towards her due to the misconception that everyone from Africa comes from a poor, struggling background (04:49). Adichie asserts that media and literature available to the public often only tell one story, which causes people to generalize and make assumptions about groups of people.Īdichie shares two primary examples to discuss why generalizations are made. People, especially in their childhood, are “impressionable and vulnerable” when it comes to single stories (Adichie 01:43). Adichie argues that single stories often originate from simple misunderstandings or one’s lack of knowledge of others, but that these stories can also have a malicious intent to suppress other groups of people due to prejudice (Adichie). Awards in the Public Humanities: Research & Engagement (2022-2023)Ĭhimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "The Danger of a Single Story" Ted Talk, in July 2009, explores the negative influences that a “single story” can have and identifies the root of these stories.Center for Literary and Comparative Studies. ![]()
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