Notes on "Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story" TED Talk

• From Eastern Nigeria
• Read mostly British and American books
• When she started writing she started writing exactly the same type of stories she read (white)
• She’s entertaining a bit sarcastic
• We´re impressionable and vulnerable in the phase of a story, specially kids
• They had to be unidentifiable, the book, that’s what she thought
• Mentions Chinua Achebe
• She did not know people like her could exist in literature
• She comes from a conventional middle class family from Nigeria
• Father professor mother is administrator
• She turned 8 and got a new “house boy”, file
• His family was poor
• She felt pity for him
• She couldn’t believe his family made something, a basket
• She couldn’t believe someone “poor” could make something
• Her single story on poor people is what made her believe this
• Roommate confused when she spoke English so well at age of 19
• Roommate had pretty much felt sorry for her before she actually saw her, had default—positioned her, as an African, to a kind of patronizing, well-meant pity. Her roommate had a single story of Africa.
• In this single story there is no possibility of Africans being like her roommate, “no possibility of a connection as human equals”.
• If she would’ve been raised in America and had seen this popular media on Africa she would also believe that Africa is a place of “beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals,  and incomprehensible people fighting senseless wars dying from poverty and aids, unable to speak by themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind, white, foreigner.”
• Shows how old Western literatures interpret African people, as beasts who have no houses, people without heads, having their eyes and mouths in their breasts. Represents the beginning of a tradition of telling African stories in the west, as a place of difference, darkness as a place of negatives.
• A professor said her novel was not “African authentic”
• Her characters were too much like him; therefore they were not authentically African.
• Tells a story on how she realizes how she was so emerged in the media coverage of Mexicans that they had become one thing in her mind, the abject immigrant. She had bought in to the single story.
• “Show people as one thing and one thing only over and over again and that is what they will become”.
• Explains how just one novel can create a story about an ethnicity.
• Talks about her past and some of the tragedies that occurred in her life.She grew up under repressive military government that devalued education therefore sometimes her parents were not paid their salaries. Political fear interfered with their lives. 
• Says, “All of these stories make me who I am, but to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experiences and to overlook the many other stories that formed me. The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”        A summary of the presentation, the idea she wants to give to her audience.
• Single stories robs people of their dignity, it focuses on what people have different rather than similar. 
• What if we had a African national television network that broadcasts diverse African stories all over the world, Chinua Achebe calls this “a balance of stories”.
• Uses a brilliant technique of repetition with the phrase, “what if my roommate knew” and then followed up with the true reality of Nigeria and how underrated it really is.
• Stories have been used to dispossess and malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of the people but stories can also repair that broken dignity. 

This will be transformed into a reflection on the topic in which I will display the knowledge of the importance of organization in writing. 

A Streetcar Named Desire: Alternate Ending (Second Draft)

After Stanley sexually abuses Blanche she can’t do anything for she is in shock. Blanche is lying next to the bed numb and not feeling anything. After a couple of hours that Blanche had been in the same position, with her clothes ripped, her hair messed up, dried up tears with faded eyeliner on her face. Stella came in to the room and saw Blanche lying there. She could see how terrorized Blanche was by the expression she had on her face. Blanches popping eyes were staring at the same all the time and she did not react to any of Stella’s actions.  Stella knew exactly what had happened. It was showing in her eyes that she was feeling empty, lost and wretched. Stella had always suspected that Stanley was attracted to Blanche but she didn’t mind because she was sure that Stanley would never cheat on her, but she was wrong.

 Stanley left the building. He kept on thinking of what had happened. He had mixed feelings about it. Stanley knew that what he had done was wrong but wasn’t regretting it. In fact he had enjoyed it and if he could do it over again he would but his love towards the future with his baby and Stella living together was stronger than his desire and lust for Blanche. He went to the bar he usually went to when he was depressed. After a couple of quick drinks he started to realize how this all would affect his relationship. Everything with Stella could be over just like that. Stanley couldn’t stand the thought of this and wanted to escape. With barely any money he couldn’t afford to leave town so he took a decision that to him seemed the easiest one. Stanley went to the pawn shop which was some blocks away from the bar and bought a second hand Smith & Wesson Model 10. After this he decides to go home by walking which would take some time but he wanted time to think. Stella was looking for Stanley everywhere and Blanche was just next to her because she didn’t want to be alone. Stella just wanted to talk to Stanley, she was disappointed. Stella looked for him everywhere, at the bar, at the bowling alley and a Mitch’s house. He was nowhere to be found.

Stanley walked into the kitchen and sat down. He kept on thinking what he should do with the gun. He bought the gun to put on end to his. Stanley kept on a looking at the Smith & Wesson Model 10. He looked at the barrel of it and he could see the shining bullet at the bottom of it. It surprised Stanley how shiny it was and it reminded him of Stella, of Stella’s shining smile, of how that smile could make his day so much better after losing any important bet with his friends. He left the gun in the kitchen and rushed to his room to find old pictures of him and Stella. Stanley had always been an alpha male and a “macho guy” but when he saw these pictures, a tear came out of his eyes and then started crying. Stanley realized what a wonderful woman he had, Stella, and the experience with Blanche made him realize this. All he was thinking now was how to solve this huge problem. The suicide thoughts he had minutes ago were vanishing.

Blanche returned to the house because she just wanted to rest, she was exhausted. She never thought Stanley would be there. Blanche heard him sobbing and looked into the room; she saw Stanley sitting at his desk with his back towards her. Then Blanche saw the loaded handgun resting on the kitchen table and she gave a mad grin to it. As soon as she grabbed the Smith & Wesson it was clearly visible in her face that she was extremely confident about the situation. She went in to the room and cat walked towards Stanley. He didn’t hear Blanche coming in but did feel the wrapping of her arms slowly around his neck. Stanley thought it was Stella and was glad because he assumed she somehow understood him and forgave him. Why else would Stella be hugging him? Stanley then felt a cold metallic piece at the bottom of his chin. For a second there he thought it was Stella’s bracelet but Blanche kept on putting more pressure on that spot and whispered in his ear, “you were a stranger to me, but now that I know you, you disgust me”. She pulled the trigger. The gun fell on the floor; Blanche picked it up rapidly and placed it in Stanley’s hand.  Stanley was still on the chair and blood was dripping from his head. The pictures of Stanley and Stella were on the desk, Blanche looked at them and in her head it was all perfect, she walked away without looking back…

Description of characters in The Bluest Eye

Cholly Breedlove -

Cholly Breedlove is a relatively young afro-american adult who was abandoned by his mum at a very young age. Since then he has in a way a slight grudge for women. Cholly has a drinking problem because of the rough things he has been through. One of these would be the way he was emasculated when he lost his virginity by white coloured men that were around the area. After this he has somehow a necessity of feeling superior and that is why he treats women the way he does because he knows he is socially and physically more powerful than them, unlike the white men that humiliated him. He wasnt seen as a friendly person per-se, we can see this when it is mentioned in pg.40 that "Cholly had the meanest eyes in town". After sexually abusing of Pecola, her daughter, he walks out of the picture and dies alone at a workhouse.

Claudia McTeer - 

Claudia McTeer is the main narrator of the story. She narrates the story from a childs perception and also when she is older. She is a quite naive afro-american girl who tries to help Pecola in her situations but the main difference between Claudia and Pecola is that Claudia comes from a stable family and has a younger sister that supports her too, they are a team somehow. She sees the world and afro-american people differently than the rest does. She tries to stay positive and has good intentions. Claudia McTeer is a brave girl who protects what she believes in, equality. Even though she is a young girl she has quite mature opinions for her age and for the times she was living in. 

IOC of The Bluest Eye, Pgs.#188-190 (Audio Commentary Video)

The psychology of males who are abusive to women: Analysing A Streetcar Named Desire

There are different types of abuse such as sexual, emotional, physical and more but from what I have read and seen, Mr. Stanley Kowalski is more emotionally abusive. These men tend to intimidate, humiliate (Scene 8), threat, blame and sometimes isolate their partners from the outer world. Abusers can control it and don’t do it when it wouldn’t benefit them, so it’s not like a type of sickness which can’t be controlled; it’s all in their mind. Many times they aren’t ashamed of being abusive but they don’t say it. They say it in another way, for example, “Yes, sometimes I slap her to put her on her place”. Abusers are more anxious, nervous, irritable, excitable, moody, defensive, self-centered, and hasty. The social class difference between Blanche and Stanley is what irritates him and makes him what he is. Blanche insulting him in an indirect way bothers him.

Tennesse Williams´ life notes

Author of “A Streetcar Named Desire” - Tennessee Williams

• The Glass Menagerie was Tennessee’s first successful play
• He hated being a celebrity
• Declared one of the best play writers
• “Many people who reach glory at an early age realize the emptiness of fame”
• Didn’t like praise, it annoyed him and made him think people were fake towards him
• After an eye operation he viewed his life more clearly, literally and figuratively
• Then he escaped to Mexico to be his former self again.
• His father was a violent man
• He didn’t have the “perfect” family. Had a sister called Rose
• Dad was violent and alcoholic. Mum was smooth and caring.
• Rose withdrew to a private mental world, she became schizophrenic.
• Tennessee blamed himself for her madness
• Tennessee was homosexual
• In Streetcar, he shaped the story from his own experience
• He hardly disguised his parents, his sister and himself when he cast them as characters on the stage. Places where he lived became settings.
• He changed his name and over the years he offered varying explanations for the new name.
• Most of Tennessee’s characters are based on real people in his life, many of them family members.
• During his last years Williams kept writing, but one plat after the other failed.
• To ease pain he turned to drinks and drugs.
• He needed several operations for cataracts.
• The new plays received terrible notices, driving him in to deeper addiction.
• He died in a New York hotel room in 1983
• Police reports say that pill were found under his body

How is media affecting eating disorders?

You can find good-looking people on most of the ads, tv-shows, magazines, commercials and also in news. From the beginning of their life the majority of children are taught by society that their looks make a difference, are relevant and matter. “Pretty” kids get more attention than other kids from maybe family members by calling them cute or adorable. This is continuous and lasts for years; they get older knowing that they are good-looking and unconsciously feeling superior somehow than someone who isn’t as attractive. So this necessity of being good-looking is grown in to people since early-on. Following the CSUN website the number of hours per day that the TV is on in an average U.S. home is of 6 hours and 47 minutes. With an increased population of children who spend a lot of time in front of television, there are more superficial ideas and concepts of how the should be like and how they should look like. TV-Shows and commercials on the television spend countless hours telling us to be thin, look beautiful, lose weight, buy more things that make us look better for people to like us. These programs rarely depict men and women with "average" body-figures and cheap simple clothes, ingraining in the back of all our heads that this is the type of life we should have and want. Overweight characters are typically portrayed as slothful, lonely, or "the bad guy", while skinny women and buff men are the popular, prosperous, sexy and powerful ones who frequently everyone like. How could we tell a person suffering from anorexia or people in general that what counts is on the inside when media is contradicting this entirely?