THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY

What lenses do we wear as we read books or articles or other texts?

What lenses does the author wear?

How do we see the information--specified or implied-- in a text?

We look at the world, everything we see, everything we hear, all that we read,  through our own perspectives,  our own personal lenses.  At any given time we are wearing at least one lens--most than likely, more than one.

When we look, for example, at the American versions of the old Little Black Sambo children's book written by Helen Bannerman--we know we are looking at stereotypical and racist images.  No matter who we are, we know that people are offended by the images, as well as the title of the book.  

The images are overtly and unapologetically negative depictions of Africans, which I find interesting since the story is actually set in India. The original illustrations in England were of an Indian child. The depictions of an African child occurred first in a 1927 American version. 

It always amazes me to read the comments on various Internet pages describing how much folks loved this book as children--and in some cases, still--- blindly accepting the images, along with the story.

We know how to categorize the negative images contained in the book.........now.

The story or plot itself is a good one--- retold and reprinted in many versions,  and has in the last two decades been more positively reimaged and rewritten by several children's  authors and illustrators, including Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney, Christopher Bing, and Fred Marcellino.

                          

 The Five Chinese Brothers written in 1938 by Claire Hutchet Bishop is the  negative Asian equivalent of Little Black Sambo. Here also the images are stereotypically racist. Again, the story or plot is good, and in recent times the story has been retold and rewritten, with several positive versions being released. 

But how do we look at texts that are a bit more subtle?

Books like The Giving Tree, or The Rainbow Fish, or Tico and the Golden Wings.
What do they show us and teach us?

They each could be read through the lenses of sharing and giving.  Or on the other hand, they could also be read as teaching us that we must give up everything we have and everything we are in order for people to like us, to want to be with us. 

Do we really have to give up our  metaphoric feathers or scales to be accepted?

Do  we really  have to become a stump of ourselves to be of value?

 








And when we share books about families, are we including everyone-- or are we portraying only one possible family configuration?  Can the child whose father does not live in his house see himself?  What about the child living with grandparents?  Or the adopted child?  Or the children living with their father?  Or two moms? or two dads?


For Mothers' Day this year, The New Yorker ran an image created by Chris Ware showing two mothers reading their card from their children

What do our books show us about identity and play and work and friends?

Are we choosing books in which each person can look into a mirror and see herself--as well as look out a window to see alternative others.

What lenses are we wearing?  What lenses does the author wear?

Are we presenting a single story---or a range of possibilities of stories?

We all remember the Four Horseman riding through the pages of Revelation in the Bible-- ushering in the apocalypse,  portending coming judgment.  Toni Morrison adjusts her lenses in Beloved--seeing four white men on horses riding  in to capture Sethe, who in return attempts to kill her own children rather than see them captured.  

Morrison writes of Africans flying in Song of Solomon, as does Walter Mosely in 47.  These are not references to Icarus as one might automatically think, depending on the lenses being worn, but, instead, refer to John the Conqueror and the traditional belief that before being brought to America,  he, along with other Africans could fly----and that some still could and might possibly return home in this manner.

We read so often about Rosa Parks being tired as the reason for sitting, negating her choice and agency in the events that lead up to, and followed her now--famous arrest. See previous related post, She Would Not Be Moved: Celebrating Rosa Parks.

  

What lenses are we wearing?  

Are we reading and sharing books that allow us to determine and examine the lenses  being worn by others?  

For example, as we consider Christopher Columbus, we may want to offer several versions of texts, telling as  many sides of the story as we can. Follow the Dream: The Story of Christopher Columbus by Peter Sis tells the story from the perspective of Columbus and also his crew, while  Encounter by Jane Yolen tells the story from the perspective of the people he encountered.

            

      
                                                                               

Our responses to both children and adults, to their conversations and their writing--- our responses to who they are--- are filtered through the personal lenses that we wear. 

We view butterflies (and everything) according to our experiences and knowledge---or lack thereof.  One of my favorite stories illustrating this point is  Butterflies by Patricia Grace. 

I have shared this story  with teachers many times as we talk about responding to our students' writing.   Below is the last part of the story. Click here to read the entire story.  

....You write your story?”
“Yes.”
“What’s your story?”
“About the butterflies.”
“Get your book then. Read your story.”
The granddaughter took her book from her schoolbag and opened it.
“I killed all the butterflies,” she read. “This is me and this is all the butterflies.”
“And your teacher like your story, did she?”
“I don’t know.”
“What your teacher say?”
“She said butterflies are beautiful creatures. They hatch out and fly in the sun. The
butterflies visit all the pretty flowers, she said. They lay their eggs and then they die. You don’t kill butterflies, that’s what she said.”
The grandmother and the grandfather were quiet for a long time, and their granddaughter, holding the book, stood quite still in the warm garden.
“Because you see,” the grandfather said, “your teacher, she buy all her cabbages from the supermarket and that’s why.”

What lenses did the Grandparents wear? The child?  The teacher?

Best-selling Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie, eloquently talks about the importance of telling and hearing all sides of the story in her  TED Talk, The Danger of a Single Story.

What is your story? What lenses do your wear?

You may want to also read previous related post Wrapping Our Words in a Container Lining.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibility

Who are you and what  lenses do you wear?  
List your roles, indentities, positionings, philosophies---- all the lenses that you wear.

For example, my list includes: woman, black woman, wife, stepmother, daughter, Christian,  Episcopalian,retired educator, short person, middle-aged? etc.

Consider the book you are currently reading.

Who is telling the story?

Whose story is being told?

What does the author know, believe, and feel?

What does the author assume you know and believe?
What does __________ (character) know, believe, and feel?

What does this text say about the world?

What is your own perspective?

Write a reflective piece about the perspectives, positionings, philosophies, messages and images in your book.                                                
                                                                            

What did you learn about your own lenses? Your own story? The story of others?

WHOSE STORY?

What is the truth?

Who tells your truth?

We all know the story of the Seven Blind Mice.  
They found an unusual something by the pond. Each variously went to investigate.
Each returned with a different conclusion about what it was.

A pillar. A snake. A spear. A great cliff. A fan. A rope.

When the  seventh mouse got to the something, she ran from one end to the other, up and down, to each side, and all around.  

She concluded that when all the parts discovered by each mouse  were considered together, the something could only be an elephant.

Our stories are like that sometimes.  We may each know a piece, a part, a sliver of the story.

Our version may not match the story of the same event told by our friend or spouse or other family member.

We tell stories based on the lenses we wear,  the individual perspectives from which we observe the world and experience our lives. (See related previous post Wrapping Our Words in a Container Lining.)

Perspectives can vary in many ways.  

Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne allows us to have a look at how differently we each see people, places and situations.  This book allows us to see how our various perspectives encounter and confront each other, interact and negotiate meaning, and ultimately, determine how we act. 

Each individual voice in the text is given its own style, feel, and font.

Each individual sees the people and events in the park through distinct lenses.


How is your voice distinct from that of others? 

What font would represent your voice?

Our creative voices are just as distinct as our seeing, hearing, living voices.  We construct and represent our ideas to the world. 

In Once Upon A Cool Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O'Malley, a boy and girl have to collaborate to tell  a fairy tale to their class.  

The results will delight all ages as the two wrestle with their very different perspectives of what should happen in a fairy tale and how it should be told. 

As their joint tale unfolds, speech bubbles allow us to peek at their thoughts and gain insight into their conflicting creative processes.  Again, changes in fonts illuminate different voices in the story.


As we think about perspectives, we  often delight in discovering the other side of the story, we usually want to know what other involved parties are thinking.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! by A. Wolf as told to Jon Scieska gives us a humorous opportunity to think about the other side and to consider alternative motives and causes of actions in this familiar tale.


Who do you believe?  

How do you determine truth?

Sometimes it is our own perspectives that will differ depending on our continuing experiences and development.


In Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Spoken Memories by Aliki we follow the growth  of Marianthe's  language, and power to give shape and words to her story, as she initially paints her story, gradually learns English, and finally, gains more confidence in her abilities to use this new language to tell her story. The text is comprised of  two distinct, yet related stories.  

 


How are our stories different if we use art, or music or some other sensory form other than words to tell it?

What are advantages of using these forms? What are advantages of using words?

In my classroom, one of my major goals in teaching Social Studies and current events, as well as just fostering our living together in community, was always to have as many voices as possible openly heard and critically examined.  This applied to the people and situations about which we read, as well as to ourselves.

There are many books that support that work and allow students to look at many sides.

Witness by Karen Hesse and Bull Run by Paul Fleischman are two excellent examples of such texts.

In Witness, the citizens of a small Vermont town , tell their stories in poetry, as the Ku Klux Klan comes to their town in 1924. The characters include a young African American girl, a  young Jewish immigrant,  a bootlegger, a preacher, an unmarried farm woman.. and the list continues to include black and white, young and old, upstanding and criminal, those who support the Klan. those opposed, and those who are targeted.  Beliefs and reactions are shared by each in poems.

In Bull Run, the first battle of the Civil War is recounted in short prose pieces by 16 participants, from all walks of life--Northern and Southern, male and female, white and black, young and old. 

And finally, I always relied  on Phillip Hoose to provide my students with a child's perspective

no matter what period or events we were studying in history.  We Were There Too! Young People in U.S. History provides accounts of many children and teens that participated in our history.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

Reflect on a recent event in your life or current events in  your community.

Write a short  poem or prose piece about this event.

Now think about other people who participated, witnessed, or were in some other way involved.

Write another short poem or prose piece from their perspective.

Try writing more pieces, so that you have several about the same event.

What did you discover by examining different  perspectives through your writing? 

Wrapping our Words in a Container Lining

Today we address the final and most personal source or consideration for writing ideas—the container lining.  (In previous posts, we have addressed the first three—context, content and container)

By container lining, I mean all of the lenses we wear as we look at our own lives and the larger world.  The container lining is the unique perspective from which we see and understand everything, including all that we read and write.

In the image of a basket of bread on a table, we are able to see all of the starting places for writing ideas that we have already considered.  The set table, including the condiments, flatware, other utensils, and table cloth, is the context.  The container is the basket, and the content, of course, is the bread.

The container lining separates the bread from the container and the context, and from us, as well.  The bread –the content or meaning—is wrapped in our personal perspectives, seen through our individual lenses, coloring how we see the bread itself.

We each wear at least one lens at any given time.

What are mine?  I am African American, female, short, with short hair, and I love jewelry. (I wear lots of it.) These are all lenses that you can see.  I wear other lenses that you cannot see.  I am a Christian (Episcopalian), Democrat, a retired teacher, a wife, a stepmother, a graduate of The Ohio State University, and the list continues on and on.

All of these lenses color what I read in books and in the world, and also everything I write.

What are the lenses that you wear?

This year’s inauguration poet, Richard Blanco, wrapped his ideas in a container liner that is distinctly his.  His lenses in part: the first Hispanic, first gay male and the youngest person to join the select group of inaugural poets.  Others inaugural poets include Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.

His poem,One Today, could have only been written by him. His unique view of our world is the container lining through which he wrote and presented his work to us. 

Our own lenses are the individual ways in which we hear and receive his words.

Today’s Deeper Writing Possibility

Read  Richard Blanco’s poem.

Write a poem about your America wrapped in your personal container lining. 

Look back at your poem to identify your lenses after you have completed your work. 

What lenses did you wear?

Did any surprise you?