The Danger of a Single Story

The Danger of a Single Story is a short speech explaining the dangers and valid examples of people who stereotype others. The speaker talks about how she grew up in a wealthy family in Nigeria. Most people alone stereotype Nigerians as poor Africans living in the third world. Although expected to be stereotyped, she also has formed a single story of the help her family had. She automatically felt as if she needed to pity the house boy and his family and as if they were capable of nothing. So when the house boy’s mother showed her a basket she had made, she was instantly surprised because she had thought they were useless. The tables had been turned when she had gone away to college in the US and her roommate had instantly formed a single story of her for being from Nigeria. Her roommate thought she was poor and unintelligent. Before going to the US, she hadn’t even realized she classified as an African. Most of her life, people looked at her with a formed single story out look of her and had expectations for her and her kind. She pushes limits to try and prove everyone wrong. But when she visits Mexico, she catches herself forming her own single story of Mexicans and how they should live their lives. She had felt embarrassed. Another day, when she was speaking at a University, a student felt sorry for her, thinking all Nigerian men were rapists. So she told the boy, “ I had just read a novel called American Psycho, and it is such a shame that young Americans were serial killers.” She knew this wasn’t true but she definitely made listeners reconsider their thoughts. Every side to a person is what makes them who they are and looking at the single story is degrading and being blind to reality.
    The theme of this speech is single stories and stereotyping. The speaker explains to the listeners how single stories affect the victims of this action. She shows how it is to be on both sides of the single story. There is only one theme to this story and it is an important one. The author expresses single stories as the main theme very well.

The Stolen Party

     The Stolen Party by Liliana Hecker is a short story that shows the perspective of a little girl that isn't aware of the way ascribed status works. Rosaura is a little girl who is the daughter of a woman who is the help of a high end family. When the high end family's daughter, Luciana has a birthday party at the house, Rosaura takes her invite very seriously and thinks she is going as a guest. Rosaura's mother tries to talk her out of wanting to attend the party but Rosara is extremely dead set on going to the party because she had been told  monkey and magician would be there as well. Her mother had given in and allowed her to go to the party. At the party, Rosaura was having the time of her life. She was the only one allowed into the kitchen to see the monkey and she felt very special. When the magician brought the monkey out for his magic tricks, Roaura was asked to help the magician out with the trick and she felt so special. By the end of the party, Rosaura decided she had an amazing time. She watched as every boy leaving the party got a yo-yo and all the girls leaving received a bracelet. She stood waiting for her gift when the mother of the birthday girl, Senora Ines, came over to Rosaura and her mother and instead of giving her a bracelet, she gave her two bills and said, " You really and truely earned this." Rosaura stood in shock. It turns out that Rosaura had been invited to the party as help. Senora Ines invited her to entertain all the real party guests. The monkey in the story represented the help stuck in their ascribed status position, including Rosaura and her mother. At the end of the party, Rosaura was paid instead of given a gift because she was not a real guest.
     The purpose of this text is to show the other point of view to those of the lower or less fortunate class, like Rosaura. That makes this text informative and also entertaining. In the text, it was very ironic for Rosaura to walk into the kitchen to see the monkey stuck in the cage because in reality, the monkey represents Rosaura and her mother, stuck in their class. They cannot progress any higher than where they are now. Rosaura is very unfortunate and hasn't yet learned the full effect of her problem. 

Girl

The short story Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is about a mother telling her daughter how to be a lady. As the story goes on, the directions progress and get more harsh. The advice progresses as the daughter ages through time. The mother in this story uses references to take the place of sensitive topics that women deal with. For example, the mother refers to cleavage and how the daughter dresses as eating fruit in the street. She also refers to abortion as making a child go away before it is a child and she refers to male parts as bread. This mother tells her daughter how to survive while being a classic lady, the way people expect her to be. She tells her daughter how to be fake to people she doesn't like and let them think she likes them. She also touched base on how to get men and get rid of them if she doesn't like them without seeming like a slut. This story outlines basic gender roles set by society. The most important role set though out the story is how a woman must find a guy to sleep with to get their financial support. At the end of all the advice, the daughter asks, 'what if I can't get a guy to have sex with me?' in the form of "what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?" The mother then asks her back, 'you're really going to be a woman men won't sleep with after all of my advice?' in the form of "you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?"
The tone of this short story is very serious and informative. By making the mother badger the daughter with advice, the writer accomplished the serious, informative effect. If someone tried to give me this advice, I would be offended and I would definitely not listen to such shallow advice. I am comfortable being who I am. If people don't like me, then I think that's okay because being superficial is nothing to be proud of.