® ENGLISH GCSE – NON-FICTION TEXTS
From the Danger of a Single story
Stereotypes:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
She explains how everyone stereotypes others and makes a point
about telling the audience/reader that she too is guilty by using her
anecdote about Fide and her story about Mexico. Her American
roommate ‘assumed’ things about her, and she says that she felt
sorry for her – she is taking pity on Adichie for being African and this
creates humor which allows the audience to take a break from
what is a serious matter. She uses ‘a danger of a single story’ to
convey that fact that everyone including her misinterprets and
judges' people without knowing them and that is a bad things -
builds a sense of pity but its not invited by Adichie as she’s saying we
need to understand what we are doing and fix it instead of dwell on
it – by misunderstanding things and placing it into a stereotypical
category we make ourselves look silly
Honesty:
She establishes trust and encourages us to hear er out as this is not a
topic that people want to be lectured about because she’s right
and they are wrong but she’s saying she’s just like them and all of us
need to learn. ‘I must quickly add’ reassures her honesty and is her
quickly reinforcing the fat she’s not better than them.
Structure:
There are relatively short paragraphs, do not overwhelm the
audience and allow for facts to be followed by narrative. This is a
speech given at a TED talk and so the short paragraph allows her to
rest and lets the audience absorb what she is saying as she wants
people to understand and spread her message whilst also doing
something about it themselves. She makes the vocabulary
uncomplicated and conveys her ideas in a direct soft but forceful
tone. That contrasts the topic of stereotyping where there is a lot of
ambiguity, obscurity, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. She
uses a lot of weighted contrasting (line 54-60) and uses recuring
images and repetition as well as repeated anecdotes to bring
cohesion and reinforce the same point to the audience. Cyclical
structure starts with a story and ends with a story. Line 48 is a blunt
direct line which stands out and brings our attention to this point
®
Copyright © 2022 Revision Guru | All rights reserved
From the Danger of a Single story
Stereotypes:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
She explains how everyone stereotypes others and makes a point
about telling the audience/reader that she too is guilty by using her
anecdote about Fide and her story about Mexico. Her American
roommate ‘assumed’ things about her, and she says that she felt
sorry for her – she is taking pity on Adichie for being African and this
creates humor which allows the audience to take a break from
what is a serious matter. She uses ‘a danger of a single story’ to
convey that fact that everyone including her misinterprets and
judges' people without knowing them and that is a bad things -
builds a sense of pity but its not invited by Adichie as she’s saying we
need to understand what we are doing and fix it instead of dwell on
it – by misunderstanding things and placing it into a stereotypical
category we make ourselves look silly
Honesty:
She establishes trust and encourages us to hear er out as this is not a
topic that people want to be lectured about because she’s right
and they are wrong but she’s saying she’s just like them and all of us
need to learn. ‘I must quickly add’ reassures her honesty and is her
quickly reinforcing the fat she’s not better than them.
Structure:
There are relatively short paragraphs, do not overwhelm the
audience and allow for facts to be followed by narrative. This is a
speech given at a TED talk and so the short paragraph allows her to
rest and lets the audience absorb what she is saying as she wants
people to understand and spread her message whilst also doing
something about it themselves. She makes the vocabulary
uncomplicated and conveys her ideas in a direct soft but forceful
tone. That contrasts the topic of stereotyping where there is a lot of
ambiguity, obscurity, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. She
uses a lot of weighted contrasting (line 54-60) and uses recuring
images and repetition as well as repeated anecdotes to bring
cohesion and reinforce the same point to the audience. Cyclical
structure starts with a story and ends with a story. Line 48 is a blunt
direct line which stands out and brings our attention to this point
®
Copyright © 2022 Revision Guru | All rights reserved
