The speaker's use of contrasts

In his TED talk “A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided”, Anand Giridharadas relies heavily on contrasts in his storytelling and his TED talk in general. This makes sense since the topic itself is about contrasts in American society, more specifically the growing inequality between rich and poor. The speaker uses contrasts in relation to two elements in the talk: When he talks about America fracturing into two separate Americas, and when he talks about the story of Stroman and Bhuiyan.

According to Giridharadas, America is splitting into two different societies: “An America that still dreams, still strives, still imagines that tomorrow can build on today, and an America that has resigned to fate, buckled under stress and chaos, lowered expectations.” (ll. 80-82). He argues that he realized this six years ago when he returned from India where the belief in the American Dream and th...