What Stories Matter?
The fifth week of the writing marathon intended to inspire both with my first year writing students and the Just Write virtual writing group focused on the deceptively simple question: what stories matter? This week was a transitional week in my first year writing class as we move from writing American Creeds to Rhetorical Analysis. In my first year writing class the focus of our rhetorical analysis essays will be a popular culture narrative (book, movie, or television show) that is important both to the writer and to our culture.
We began our writing making simple lists of stories that have shaped our lives by exploring what stories we connect with our childhood, family, and friends and what stories we return to again and again. I shared some of my touchstones from my childhood as well as my son’s childhood (from Anne McCaffrey’s The Dragonriders of Pern to Star Wars The Clone Wars, from Harry Potter to the X-Men).
Our next exploration focused on why we need stories and how stories have played such an important role throughout human history. Stories have always been an useful way to teach us things about ourselves and our world as well as teaching children key survival skills. But more important for a class exploring personal values stories teach us how to be human, how to cope (or not) with tragedy and loss and all the other challenges that the world and life throw at us, and inspire us to do and to be more. Through stories we can see examples of worthy and unworthy goals and aspirations as well as the consequences of pursuing them. We can contemplate tricky ethical questions without the least risk to ourselves or others. Finally, and this ties closely to our American Creed theme, stories provide a common ground where we can connect and bond. We create community by sharing our stories.
Our exploration of stories also considered the difference between stories and Stories (with a capital S). This differentiation is guided by questions about the hero’s journey and challenges faced by the main characters. In Stories, the main character is on a life-altering journey that changes and challenges the hero, his or her companions, and the reader. Joseph Campbell identified this pattern of narrative in many forms from drama to myth to psychology and called it the Hero’s Journey or Monomyth. The main characters of Stories are also engaged in answering the big questions that have always challenged humanity (also known as beautiful questions). These questions about the struggle between good and evil, what it means to be human, and our ethical responsibilities should transcend the setting of the story and the time and place it was shared.
Our final exploration of stories focused on how traditional (even stereotypical stories) can offer much more beneath the surface than we typically recognize without contemplation.
- Horror teaches us that humans are always the real monsters while stories such as The Walking Dead explore the fight to retain our humanity and the cost of that fight
- Westerns (set in the past and the future) are stories about what people will do to protect their homes and families and dreams
- Fantasy novels teach us about the costs of our gifts and the interconnectedness of the universe
- Science fiction helps us confront the frightening unknowns of the universe
- Superhero stories inspire us to tackle thorny issues of right/wrong, good/evil, and power/responsibility
- Mysteries challenge us to pay attention and explore the murky gray areas of human life
- Epic stories teach us what it means to be human
We all have Stories that play an important role in our lives and it can be worthwhile to explore what those stories mean to us and what those stories have taught us.
