Not Just a Single Story

Adichie does a wonderful job depicting several perspectives to the same event in her short story “A Private Experience.” As Adichie explains in her talk about “the danger of a single story,” there is never one way to view anything. Whether it’s a person, culture, or event, there is always a different way to look at it. In the short story, two very different women are forced together when a riot breaks out. Despite their different languages and religions, each one is able to find comfort in the other. It would have been easy for Adichie to portray only one women’s account of the experience. However, this would have encouraged readers to favor one character over the other. Had Adichie only described Chika’s experience, readers would not have understood that the riot impacted both her and the other women. Had Adichie only told the woman’s side of the story, readers would be left questioning Chika’s significance in the story. By highlighting the differences between the characters while still showing their connections to each other, readers experience multiple sides of the story. This is something that can be quite challenging but very rewarding for the author and readers. “A Private Experience” has incredible depth despite being a short story. By the end of the story the characters learn they have found solace in each other while readers conclude with a multidimensional perspective of the characters and the riot that brought them together.

http://paperbackreader2.blogspot.com/2009/07/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie.html