Rodriguez 1

Lorraine Rodriguez
Professor Diane Mannone
English 103
5 October 2015
The Danger of the Single Story
“Don’t judge a book by its cover”. We’ve all heard that phrase and we’ve all used that phrase. According to Wikipedia, it refers to it as a metaphorical phrase that can be translated to:
“You shouldn’t prejudge the worth or value of something by its outward appearance alone”. This well known phrase is part of a greater but, less popular concept known as, a single story. In a
TED Talk given by writer, Chimamanda Adichie, she explains that a single story is one story we hear over and over again about a person or a place and interact with that person or place through the lens of that one story. She argues that, “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”. A single story is dangerous for two reasons: it flattens our experience with another person and it can negatively affect the identity of a human being.
When we engage with another person through the lens of a single story, we lose the opportunity of experiencing the depth of a person because we are simply not made up of one story, but of many stories. Similarly, and in some cases much worse, a single story can negatively shape the identity of a person when the single story we believe is not about another, but about our self. A single story is dangerous only when it is left unchallenged. When we challenge a single story we’ve been told, we gain the power to positively change the direction of another person’s life or of our own.

1

Rodriguez 2 In the book, Tattoos of the Heart by Father Gregory Boyle, he shows the significance of

seeing people as equal. He shares in a vignette from his book, an experience he has with “Chepe and Richie” at a diner in another town, far from their East L.A. norm. When they walk into the diner they are greeted by a displeased look from their hostess. Avoiding them for a bit, she finally gets up to formally greet them and guides them to a table far from where all the other diners are enjoying their food. In this part of the vignette, the danger of a single story is powerfully evident. The hostess saw two men with shaved heads and tattoos. Her single story of men with tattoos and shaved heads was that they were dangerous and less educated. Het single story probably had her believing that they might eat and run out on the bill or maybe disturb the other customers. Their presence made her uncomfortable. Little did she know that Chepe and
Richie were trying to make a better life for themselves and were far more interested in experiencing a restaurant for the first time then hurting anyone. The hostess had a single story of
Chepe and Richie and interacted with them through the lens of her single story. Her interaction was shown by her obvious displeased attitude when they first walked in and her attitude toward
Chepe and Richie created walls between them. Her single story flattened what could have been a very enjoyable experience. The hostess lost an opportunity to really get to know them. She lost an opportunity to learn that men with shaved heads and tattoos are not what she believed them to be. The story continues and the single story is seen again when the hostess is walking them to their far-away table. Richie whispers as they are walking, “Everybody’s looking at us”, Father
Boyle disagreed but shares in secret that he actually felt the same, everyone was looking at them.
Furthermore, feeling like an outsider, Chepe says, “We don’t belong here, we should go someplace else.” The danger of this moment is that Chepe is ready to leave because he feels like

2

Rodriguez 3

an outsider, he feels like he doesn’t belong. When we feel treated differently based on how we look we often choose the exit route because we feel uncomfortable, but more importantly because we too believe in the single story. Chepe was ready to leave because he believed in the story that he felt all around him that told him that he did not belong there. He believed that he wasn’t good enough to be there. The danger with choosing the exit route is that what we are actually doing is limiting ourselves from an opportunity. In other words, we are settling in life by accepting what is because we rather run when we feel unequally treated than challenge what people think. Fortunately, Chepe, Richie and Father Boyle did stay. Had they not choose to stay, the judgment the hostess placed on them and the glaring eyes from the other diners would have shaped a part of Chepe and Richie’s identity into believing that they are not as important enough as “rich” people. It would have negatively shaped their self-worth.
The last part of their dining experience was not what they expected. When they sat at their table they were pleasantly surprised to receive a waitress who was quite the opposite from the others in the diner. Their waitress serviced them with a welcoming manner. She put her arms around Chepe and Richie, calling them “Sweetie” and “Honey”, giving them refills without them asking, and supplying them with endless Tapatio. As they were leaving Chepe and Richie, feeling appreciated, said about their waitress, “She was firme…she treated us like we were somebody”. The waitress treated Richie and Chepe equally and by doing so, she shifted their whole experience. They went from feeling like they did not belong, to feeling seen and cared for.
The waitress didn’t see two men that looked dangerous, she saw two men worthy of great service. Whether she realized it or not, she challenged the single story that the hostess and diners did not. She didn’t accept one story about Chepe and Richie and by doing so she broke down the walls between them.

3

Rodriguez 4 In Maxine Hong Kingston’s short story, “No Name Woman”, we see again the

significance of challenging a single story. In the short, she shares a hidden story her mother told her about her only aunt who was led to her death because she was found to be an adulterous woman in their village at that time. She was a hidden story because her parents and the rest of the elders never spoke of her because she was considered a disgrace. In an effort to discover her identity, Hong Kingston chose not to accept her aunt’s story as the only story. Her aunt was the only woman aside from her mother who connected Hong Kingston to her roots. So she felt it necessary to make some sense of what really happened with her aunt. She did that by analyzing other reasons why her aunt would take her and her newborn baby’s life. She contemplates, “My aunt could not have been the lone romantic who gave up everything for sex. Women in Old
China did not choose. Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil. I wonder whether he masked himself when he joined the raid on her family”. Maxine challenges the charges against her aunt. Knowing that women could not choose in the Old China, she questions whether her aunt was the one who pursued an affair or was forced into it.
Women in the Old China specifically, did not choose their husbands. They were chosen for them. It was a special time for the woman. Hong Kingston describes her aunts experience, “She was lucky that he was her age and she would be the first wife, an advantage secure now. The night she first saw him, he had sex with her. Then he left for America. She had almost forgotten what he looked like. When she tried to envision him, she only saw the black and white face in the group photograph the men had taken before leaving.” This depiction of the aunt’s journey into marriage shows how women like the aunt, were secured a future with a husband and expected to be happy about their new life. The aunt was not happy. Her decision to give into having sex with another man was ultimately wrong, but what the villagers neglected to see was

4

Rodriguez 5

that they had just as much to do with her decision as she did. As Hong Kingston processes scenarios different from that of her aunt being an adulterous woman worthy of being forgotten, she comes to a conclusion. Her aunt was probably innocent. When Hong Kingston considered the inequality toward women in the village, it made sense why her aunt desired another man, while her husband whom she barely even knew was gone for over a year. The villagers did not consider other reasons why her aunt had an affair. They accepted that one story as her only story.
Thus, leaving the aunt to be forgotten for years. Hong Kingston recognizes that she too forgot about her aunt when she says, “ In the twenty years since I heard this story I have not asked for details nor said my aunts name; I do not know it.” In her effort to discover her own identity through her aunt, she discovered that her aunt was a woman worth remembering. She discovered depths into her aunt’s identity. The danger of the single story left her aunt to be a ghost for years, until Hong Kingston decided to, “devote pages of paper to her”, and giving her life again.
In my own life, I have seen the single story play out often. One particular moment was when my nephew came home from school troubled about being teased for his colorful backpack he excitedly took to school that day. My sister, his mom, instead of supporting him for being different, told him, “I told you not to take that backpack to school!” I asked her why she was bothered and she said that she didn’t want him standing out because it would make him a target for being picked on. The danger of a single story is much more difficult to when you see it happening to someone you love. My sister was creating a single story for her son, my nephew that he shouldn’t stand out or else he’ll get picked on. She was putting him in danger of believing that it was better to remain on the sidelines in life. Single stories can begin as early as childhood.
And sadly they can be passed on to us from our own parents. Something as small as a parent making a child feel bad for wanting to be different could shape that child’s life. In my nephew’s

5

Rodriguez 6

case, this moment could put him in danger of taking less risk in life because somewhere along the years he was told that it was bad to be different.
A single story flattens our experience with another person and negatively affects the identity of a person. And that is dangerous. As Chimamanda says, “it robs people of dignity.” When we interact with another person through the lens of a single story we are robbing that person of the opportunity to be fully known and we are robbing that person of their voice. Our inner voice is one of the greatest gifts we all carry. So it is critical that we should fight for it and defend it always. The burden of a single story is heavy because we see it everywhere, but the power of the voice is far greater. One voice standing up can break down years of a single story.

6

Rodriguez 7 Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda. "The Danger of a Single Story." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube,
July. 2009. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Boyle, Gregory. “Jurisdiction.” Tattoos on the Heart. New York: Free Press, 2010. 134137. Print.
Hong Kingston, Maxine. “No Name Woman.” www.ursulastange.com. Web. 15
September 2015.
Rodriguez, Luis. “Shadows.” Republic of East L.A. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.
Print.

7