REFLECTION #3

CODE 123

DR. SMITH

REFLECTION #1

ALEJANDRA BELTRAN

This video addresses the “danger of a single story” and how narratives influence

our perception of the world. Adichie shares her experiences of growing up in Nigeria,

being an early reader and writer, but influenced by foreign books that did not reflect her

reality.

The story highlights how her exposure to different types of stories, especially

those by African authors such as Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, changed her

perspective and allowed her to identify with characters closer to her own experience.

The impact of unique stories and how they contribute to stereotypes is explored,

such as the case of the new servant Fide, whose family was reduced to the only

narrative of poverty. Adichie reflects on how living in the United States also confronted

her with stereotypes about Africa and how these unique stories are fueled by Western

literature and economic and cultural power.

Personally, I highly relate to this story because I have been through the same

since I came here around two years ago. The idea that I had about living the American

dream was different than the perception that I had before. When I came here and

started making friends, they would ask me questions about my culture and often would

be surprised that what they thought about it was not like that at all.

The text highlights the importance of having a “balance of stories” to truly

understand people and places.

She recognizes her complicity in believing in stereotypes, such as the case of

Mexicans, highlighting how unique stories can lead to misunderstandings and personal

shame. I love talking about this too.

Overall, the analysis reveals how our perceptions and understandings of the

world are shaped by the stories we consume and how these unique stories can distort

reality and perpetuate stereotypes.

I consider that we can use her idea that “many stories matter” to guide us in our

thinking about research by listening to different experiences and testimonies. There

might be stories that would point to the obvious, which might not be visible to us based

on our story.

Once we give each story the importance that it deserves we are going to be able

to realize that these might broaden our vision and help us to grow in many aspects.

It is hard for me to describe myself right now without telling my story from the

beginning cause my story is what has me in this position right now.

I’m Alejandra Beltran, currently attending SIUE pursuing a political science major

with the goal of pursuing corporate law at a law school once I’m done with my grad

school. I moved to USA 2 years ago hoping to find better educational opportunities as

well as wanting to meet people from around the world. With a naive and innocent

mindset, I always thought moving to USA would be as easy as finding a place to stay,

working, and going to school. I think the main reason of this perspective was the

influence that these American TV shows had on me. Once I moved down here, I

realized that some of the things that we hear or think we know about US are not true.

For example, free healthcare, free college, and school system, just to mention some.

I love listening to what others think about me no matter if it’s positive or negative.

I enjoy learning how people perceive me before knowing my story and who I really am.

I’ve met many people that perceive a wounding and bitchy person by only seeing

me. I agree that I usually have a serious posture, a non-friendly resting face, and might

seem judgmental at first. Surprisingly this is what my closest friend right now thought

about me when she first saw me.

I’ve also met people who perceive me as resilient, nice, kind and a positive

person. People’s perceptions of what a resilient, nice, kind, and positive person looks

like may vary so that is something that influences that a lot.

I would like my own story, my personality, my positivity, and my character to

define who I am. I would like people to perceive me as a person who has been

constantly fighting for what she wants through hard and good times. I would like my

value as a person to be based on that and not on my culture, my traditions, my

nationality, my looks, my voice, my hair, or any superficial feature of me.

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