Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells a story about what she would write about as a child. According to her, she would write stories that were similar to the strange stories she would read which contained white skinned children with blue eyes, nothing like her. She suddenly realizes that stories are made out of ordinary people like her. It is from real occurrences and places that stories are made. Such stories are responsible for our feelings, emotions such as pity, love or hate. In the video, Chimamanda describes the power of British stories made on her as a young girl growing up in Nigeria. Her argument is that inherent in the power of stories, is trouble of getting to know one story about a group. The story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are false but that they are incomplete. The make one story become the only thing.
A story of Betrayal and Fake Friends.
A story is told of James and Peter. One day, they were traversing through the jungle which contained wild animal of all kinds. They were on their way home. James, a timid and shy friend of Peter, said to his friend, “I am quite nervous, and I fear to trend through the forest since it contains wild animals which can harm us. Would you protect me in case a wild animal appears and attempts to attack us? James asked Peter. “Yes, I will!” Peter exclaimed! I will be there for you whenever trouble strikes in! I will not leave you neither will I forsake you. Upon walking some distances into the woods, suddenly, a bear from within the vicinity appeared and started making its way and started approaching the boys. At once, James and Peter became alerted and were ready to run. However, Peter came with the noble idea of climbing a tree. Unfortunately, James did not know how to climb a tree, and he started crying out! On seeing the alarming danger that was approaching at supersonic speed, Peter climbed the tree and left James alone crying. In the hopeless situation that James was, he quickly devised a plan and decided to lie low and pretend to be dead. The bear came up to James sniffed him up and thought he was dead. Unsatisfied, it went away at last! Peter quickly came down from the tree and asked James what the bear whispered to him. James told Peter that the bear said that I should never trust an unfaithful friend!. The moral lesson of the story is that we should avoid untrustworthy friends since they will always seek to benefit themselves and have no interest in other people’s affairs. They will always abandon their friends when trouble storms come. They should hence be avoided at all cost!
Analyze how the story might have originated.
The story might have originated out of the fact that many people are out to satisfy their selfish gains. Genuine and authentic friends are hard to find! Ideally, many people pretend to be friends, yet they have secret intentions of achieving their selfish gains. To warn against having an association with such people, such as story had to be told. In the story, Peter pretended to be a real friend to James, and he assured him that he would be there for him in case they would face trouble. When the bear approached, and James had to act ‘dead,’ he was on the brink of death in case the bear would realize that he was not dead but rather pretending to be dead. Though Peter knew how to climb a tree, he would not help his friend James.
How the story affect people’s sense of self and the way people understand and treat one another?
From the story, it can be deduced that the theme of the story is betrayed by individuals masquerading to be real friends while in the face of troubles, they tend to leave and abandon one. They are more or less as wolves in a sheep skin. They pretend to be good friends, but whenever problems and challenges set in, they retract and pretend never to exist. They are unsupportive. It is thus advisable to know one’s, real friends. It is better to have five real friends than a multitude of friends all of whom are fake.
How can the story be changed?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie encourages us to seek out a variety of stories about cultures and not just adhere to one definitive story which is often told by the power of one’s own culture. Ideally, to improve the story, the story should be set in the context of the modern times where people are fond of playing dirty games and betraying their friends. The story has a rather traditional setup, and it may not bring out the intended message. Probably, a story of fake friends and betrayal can be narrated with the structure in the military, school setup on friends who probably enter into a deal but one betrays another.