(lines 361-362).” The message that is sent though this story is, that all of us has savagery within us that could lead us to destroy our whole civilization. These short stories share a similar message, that sometimes equality in knowledge and truth can be
There is a sense of vivacity within spoken stories that written stories struggle to capture on occasion. The fact that this story was recorded in the Haudenosaunee’s
“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.” (Sue Monk Kidd). In The Things They Carried, O’Brien is clear in saying that he would agree with this as without stories, people would be very blind about their past and in some cases, what to do in the future. Sherman Alexie and Tim O‘Brien tell stories to help teach people, or show that people are naturally good at heart but they’re ideas can change based on events that they experience or witness in their lives.
“To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story” suggests that living through those experiences changes you and makes you grow. Since you “acquire the words of a story,” you can tell that story to teach other people. If you do not reflect on what happened or you try to tell yourself it did not happen, you will not grow. Storytelling is basically a way of accepting what happened. Orleanna is “owning, disowning, recanting, recharting a hateful course of events to make sense of her own complicity.”
Storytelling has such a large impact on all stages of life. Stories are told to teach a lesson, give hope, or get someone through a hard time. Tim O’Brien uses storytelling in his book, The Things They Carried, to teach lessons from war, and help readers understand about the baggage people bring to war. The publisher section of this novel has this warning in it, "This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the author's own life all incidents, names, and characters are imaginary” (O'Brien).
Story is an integral element in human life. Stories are the way humans have shared and learned for thousands of years. Storytelling is different from story writing. When a story is told, the original content lingers as long as the storytellers maintain that content. Once the story is retold it takes on different details and meaning.
His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye was a star-shaped hole. I killed him” (O’Brien 172). The purpose of a story-truth is to make his readers see what he saw, his memory, and whichever truth is told alters the answers to questions. Without them, there would almost be no point in asking questions, because there would be no truth to tell, all memories would be a
What does this novel ultimately say about storytelling? The Poisonwood Bible claims that, in storytelling, everyone tries to reform their own version of their life into an appealing story, talking mainly about the struggles they face in their life and “how they live with it” (Kingsolver 492). Adah claims that all stories are exactly based off of this essential element, a type of archetype that has many archetypals, but are all still considered the same thing. For example, if a war hero wrote a story on his life in WWII and another writer, a biologist, wrote a story on a Grizzly Bear. Both are different in topic, setting, characters, and plot, but both address the story of a living being that lived and faced good times and hardships along the way.
He tells the reader that “I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” (O’Brien, 179). If the reader wasn’t confused before, they most certainly are now, as he doesn’t state what’s the difference between the two. He leaves them wondering what actually happened, or if he’s ever telling the truth. This is because he contradicts himself so many times that all his different claims and stories are jumbled into one cloud of uncertainty. The novel would be much clearer if he always told the truth, or at the very least, let the reader know when he’s telling a story truth or when he’s sharing something that actually happened.
“If you don’t control your mind, someone else will,” according to the poet, John Allston (Midday Motivation). He explains that putting trust in a stranger is one of the most common ways in which a utopia is corrupted. Trust is a part of daily lives, so it is not surprising that the concept of trust is a key notion in stories. In the stories The Veldt and The Children’s Story, the authors Bradbury and Clavell, use trust to corrupt someone's utopia and create another's. The ideas of utopia are deepened through the comparisons and contrasts of other symbols and messages in the stories.
The sad thing about stories is that “once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world” (King10), that plane with no survivors cannot be taken back, the article in the news about the bus that flipped is read by thousands of people and cannot be taken back. The author of the “Truth About Stories” never says whether he thinks that not being able to take back stories is a good or bad thing, but rather he states that “you have to be careful with the stories you tell. And you have to watch out for the stories you are told” (King,10) because they will shape who you
Stories are for joining the past to the future.” (O’Brien 24) This quote shows the emotional connection to people that went through an experience to people who hear about the experience. Stories have the power to capture the emotional part of it to go through the event in a way that concrete facts can’t. "A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth."
At first as Wright claimed that stories have authority I was not convinced, but as he continued the more I started to understand what he meant. When we are engaged in a story, we are captivated and drawn into it. Wright’s example of the officer telling a story to some troops really captured my attention. Soldiers have a difficult and dangerous task, and if they are just told to do something they will carry it out but not in a deeply passionate way. however, if they hear a story about what is happening and how they can help or solve the problem they will go and fulfill the orders with a greater desire.
The scene then changes to the narrator’s childhood, a lonely one at it. “I lay on the bed and lost myself in stories,” he says, “I liked that. Books were safer than other people anyway.” The main narrative starts as he recalls a
Well in Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Rushdie and Toni Morrison speech, the stories are a way to expose the author’s true intentions by encouraging the use of imagination and creativity. A story that tells a life lesson or an underlying message that could be said in a simple straightforward
