The Danger of A Single Story

“The Danger of a Single Story”. It is incredible how one single story can mold our perception of something. More often than not, first impressions stick and one isolated mistake can lead to people forever having a certain view of you. This goes both ways, everyone has at some point judged someone without truly knowing them. You see this en movies, literature, and life: a single story-accurate or not-shapes the mentalities of people. Single stories form stereotypes and create certain mentalities about people.

            In her talk Adichie mentions how the British books she read made her think a certain way. She thought of only white people who lived in a British way. I can relate to that, at a young age my mom showed me movies and read books to me that were mostly written in the USA. Consequently, the characters I thought of in my imagination were Americans more than Colombian. Even my perceptions of certain daily aspects of my life were shaped by those books and movies; I pictured Christmas with snow and ice every-needless to say there is no snow in my country-and I recognized thanksgiving as a traditional holiday even though it doesn’t exist in most of the world. But I have also felt that people have certain perceptions of my country and me. This summer I was in a summer camp in NYC-a literature class- a girl was surprised at my English-my vocabulary more than my accent-and the knowledge I had of English. A few days later, I sat in the park of the University wearing a Miles Davis shirt. A guy walked up to me and said: Do you have jazz in Colombia? I answered that there was a small jazz scene but nothing special. Later that same day, the girl asked me if I knew how to salsa dance. I told her I did, but it still surprised me how salsa is associated with almost all latinos even though it is mostly Cuban or Puerto Rican.

            Everyone has certain perception-they may be derogatory or not-about other people. When they asked me if I could salsa dance-they were sure I did-it wasn’t with bad intention but it was a stereotype they had. Probably most of this stereotypes are cause by either a movie or book-through the means of globalization-or by a certain isolated event by an individual. Everyone has to stay away from creating misperceptions about others, particularly because anyone can be a victim of those veils of judgment.

Heart Of Darkness III

Darkness does not exist. It is merely the absence of light; which is normally paired with good and progress while darkness typically represents evil. In the novel Heart Of Darkness there is a paradox when it comes to the meaning of light and darkness. In the novel, light is a symbol of power and strength but not necessarily of good, then the darkness is a creation of the people who are allegedly the light. In this dichotomy-of good and evil, light and darkness-Marlow finds himself torn between the two sides of the spectrum.

            What is light? Typically it is progress, knowledge, power, good. Cities, which at a time were the hearths of culture and knowledge, were the lights of the world; places in a world-of brutality and savageness-that applied reason and humane policies were also referred to as the lights. In this novel, the light merely represents the power of certain people over others, an alleged superiority. Marlow demonstrates the irony and relativity of light with his first words in the novel, in reference to London: “And this too… was one of the dark places in the world”. The irony is that London-which was at this time the light of the world- was once a dark place in the world, controlled by an empire were knowledge and progress hadn’t arrived. What is most ironic is that light in this novel commits acts that aren’t pure or good at all. Colonizing through brutal means and entire population just for the exploitation of their resources (at this time the light is not only London but Europe). Daring to justify the acts through an absurd principle that says that the victims are inferior and need to be colonized. The darkness is therefore a creation of light, because Africa is not a place of darkness-at least no more dark than the rest of the world. What is dark is the actions commited by the light that does evil, inhumane acts.

            Really the light is the dark. Because even though the light is progress and technology, it uses its advantages to create hate and spread evil. The real light-which is supposed to do good-instead creates the darkness. In this novel, darkness is not the absence of light but the presence of it.