Question

Dimitri is preparing for a group discussion about the use of Adichie’s rhetorical strategies. Read the excerpt from "The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The American writer Alice Walker wrote this about her Southern relatives who had moved to the North. She introduced them to a book about the Southern life that they had left behind. "They sat around, reading the book themselves, listening to me read the book, and a kind of paradise was regained.”

I would like to end with this thought: That when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.

Which is the best clarifying question for Dimitri to ask about Adichie’s use of rhetorical strategies?

How does Adichie’s use of ethos make me feel?
Why does Adichie use logos and repetition together?
Why does Adichie use repetition and pathos to focus her audience on how people view others?
How does Adichie’s use of ethos support her purpose of showing the importance of all stories?

Answer 1

"Why does Adichie use repetition and pathos to focus her audience on how people view others?"

Explanation: The excerpt relies on repeated phrasing ("the single story") and an emotional appeal (the image of "paradise regained") to shape readers' understanding of how single stories affect perception. The other options misidentify the main strategies here (ethos and logos are less central in this passage).