Abby's blog

  Pollan’s essay is as much about the problem of problem-solving as it is a proposal for dealing with climate change. What do we do with the feeling that as individuals there is little we can do to influence really big issues such as homelessness, hunger, war, or climate change? Who wants to be just a drop in the bucket? Explore this dilemma by having a conversation in writing with an imaginary companion on a big issue you care about. First explain in writing what problem you think needs to be solved and why. (You might want to write about your potential research topic, if you want.) And then respond to your companion’s first question: You don’t think you could ever really do anything about it, do you? Carry on the conversation with your skeptical companion as long as you can. For most people when they hear about the issues going on in the world the most they do is fund charities, share awareness or most of the time nothing. Most people just feel bad about what’s happening but stil...

The danger of a single story is you are not able to learn about other experiences other than what’s in the single story you read. If you don’t read anything else other than the stories for example ones from Britain like Chimamanande did, then you don’t learn about other things like she soon found out and discovered after finding African books. By only having a single story it’s easy to stereotype people into different categories. Her roommate easily stereotyped her as a poor African who didn’t know anything about the American ways because she had never seen or heard different stories about Africa other than the sad and charity work of Africa. “When you show people one thing and only that one thing over and over again that what they become”(Adichie). Americans have only learned about the poor people of Africa and how sad it is, so that is all they see. I will take this quote and learn to find different stories, not just one, so I can discover differences and find new information...