Kaffir Boy

The story "Kaffir Boy" is written by Mark Mathabane. In this story you can already tell it is about race. The story was taken place in South Africa, during a dark time called The Apartheid. For some insight this Apartheid was a policy/system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. This took place in the years 1948 to 1994. That is a very long time where white's had the privilege to do just about anything and the black's were slaves in their own country. The voice of this story is from a young boy. In this story they never say his name, that is why it is called "Kaffir Boy". The word kaffir is used in South Africa to refer to a black person. It is now widely considered an offensive ethnic slur. The text is written in first person. The voice of this text is the author from when he was very young. The kaffir boy is usually with his Granny. He helps her work in the garden for their white madam Ellen. This text is addressed to all of the black and white society. It is addressed to children so it can have the children change history and make things better. It is addressed because we don't want to repeat history and also we want to know the truth about segregation back then and how it affects us now as a world. This connects to "Girl" and "Danger of a Single Story" because they all talk about human rights. The single story (stereotype) of this text is that Blacks are inferior to whites. They aren't good enough and they aren't equal. The setting of this story is taken place in school area then leads to Ellen's house. Ellen is an old white female who hired the kaffir boy's Granny to work in her garden. It's the first time the kaffir boy sees white schoolchildren. He see's a traffic sign that says "Children Crossing, Stop. Kinders Stap Oor". This sign is a key part of symbolism. The author put this in his passage to get the overall meaning out. The meaning of this sign and passage is that the white society wanted to keep it segregated. If blacks and whites were friends they would affect the power structure of white people being on top. The power structure would fall and white people did not want that. The word "stop" in the sign represents the racial line. No blacks were allowed to cross because no one wanted to mix. How would you feel as a person if you weren't allowed to go to school with other kids? How would you feel to be a slave in your country? 

Girl

In this short story called Girl written by Jamaica Kincaid, the tone of the story seems to be very harsh. In Girl , it sounds as if the speaker is a Mother talking to her daughter. The way the author wrote this is by using run on sentences. These run on sentences sound like commands on how a girl should behave and act in public and most of all how to act around men. The story goes in chronological order by the Mother talking to her daughter as a child for example the author says  in line 10 "...like the slut you are so bent on becoming". Then through the middle of the story she seems to be talking as if the child is now a teenager for example in lines 31-32 "...this way they won't recognize immediately the slut i have warned you against becoming".  At the end, the author says in lines 47-48 "...after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?". This story is very similar to Danger of a Single Story because they both indicate various gender roles, such as women should learn how to clean and cook. Women should not play in the dirt yet boys can. Women should work in the house while the men make money for the family. Some people say the tone of this story can either be harsh or caring. In my eyes I believe that the tone of this story is harsh only because of the various slut remarks, and all the mother says are commands on how to be a low-key slut. At first I thought it could be both harsh and caring because the Mother is giving advice to her daughter. She is looking out for her but then again it is very harsh because she keeps calling her a slut in lines 10 and 16. Another tone of this story is very sexual. For me it took me a while to understand all the little dirty metaphors and jokes. It's sexual because the mother is actually giving her advice on how to be a slut without anyone knowing right away. She tells her in lines 45-46 "always squeeze the bread to make sure it's fresh". She's not really talking about bread in that sentence. If you re-read that line, you will finally understand it. Clever isn't it? Talking in metaphors also leads into a gender role because it's ideal for women to talk in metaphors. That is ideal in other countries. From what I said would you agree with me that this short story is harsh? If you were a mother would you be harsh or caring in giving your daughter advice about being a slut? 

Danger of a Single Story

A novelist named Chimamanda Adichie wrote a short story called Danger of a Single Story. Adichie wrote this story in 2009. The point of the text is that one person can cause a stereotype which affects the people who hear this stereotype and believe it. Stereotypes take away humanity.  One theme from this story is power. Power is represented in a negative way. An example of this is when Adichie visited Fide's village (Fide is her house boy). Adichie's mother always told her that Fide's family has nothing, they are poor and can't do anything. To Adichie's surprise, she saw a "beautifully patterned basket of dyed raffia" that Fide's brother made. She only knew them as poor, she didn't know they could really do anything. A single story is a stereotype, a point of view. She believed it because her mother was the one that told her this single story. Usually as a kid you believe anything you hear. Generally you believe what your parents tell you because they are your role models. To me, this story reminds me of that saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover", because people just assume the worst. People assume things about a person when they haven't even spoken a word to them. It's a negative aspect because it makes people very narrow-minded. Kids hear a number of opinions being thrown around by their parents but they cant make up their opinion on how they feel about something because they automatically believe their parents. These stereotypes, opinions and single stories affect the theme humanity. Adichie mentions the word "dispossess" which basically means "take away humanity" because you tell their story. Someone with power is easily manipulative. Every person is worthy of honor or respect. These stories can break the dignity of the people which also means it can break the respect of people. Since single stories are so powerful why can't we use these single stories to make this a better place? Why don't people spread positive single stories? We have to remember it's the person's story not the messenger's. People tell negative stories about an individual sometimes to make themselves feel better, or to make them feel like they are the best. They want to be the greatest so they label people to be below them so they have all the power. People immediately believe what they hear because it's the first thing they hear and they never experienced it first hand for themselves. People are surprised when their story doesn't match the reality. Single stories are false advertisements. Have you ever heard a single story and believed it? How can we as a country change the negative stories to make them positive?