Ryan Manson
English Composition 110 E
Professor Emerson
4/11/2019
The Potential of Storytelling
Narratives have been used for as far back as our known history goes as a means to introduce, explain, describe, and elaborate on thoughts and ideas that are passed down through multiple generations. These narratives, or stories, can define who a person, or even a group of people, really are. This definition is what we call our identities. Julie Beck, in her essay “Life’s Stories”, analyzes how you can organize the timeline of personal events in your life into a narrative that molds who you are. Incorporating a narrative into your own personal identity is a crucial component of being human. Galen Strawson acknowledges that people approach life with different perspectives, in his essay “I am not a story”. He states that many people enjoy lives that are far too chaotic to be encompassed by a single narrative. I believe that due to the variety in lifestyles and cultures, as well as the many different forms of communication, everyone will experience narratives in a unique way.
With narrative being the default mode of story-telling in our world, we can use this to create, deliver, and interpret self-centered narratives. Stories will allow people to find their own identity in life. Beck elaborates on the thoughts of Dan McAdams, writing, “McAdams conceives of this development as the layering of three aspects of the self. Pretty much from birth, people are ‘actors.’ They have personality traits, they interact with the world, they have roles to play–daughter, sister, the neighbor’s new baby that cries all night and keeps you up” (Beck). She continues to reflect on McAdams’ ideas on the possession of different narratives for the many different stages of life, and when all of these stories centered on yourself are combined together, you form a narrative about your entire life. Beck thinks that an autobiographical narrative can heavily impact how a person perceives life, but this perception differs based on your lifestyle, culture, age, or upbringing. Strawson argues that a personal narrative has no influence on your perception of life, although he agrees with some of the points made by narrative enthusiasts. He writes, “I don’t think an ‘autobiographical narrative’ plays any significant role in how I experience the world, although I know that my present overall outlook and behavior is deeply conditioned by my genetic inheritance and sociocultural place and time, including, in particular, my early upbringing” (Strawson). He agrees that everyone lives their own separate and unique lives, making it justifiable to say that their narratives will be one of a kind as a result. The fluidity of a narrative based on an individual’s behavior, beliefs, and upbringing enables a person to create a ever-changing identity.
While a narrative can be used to tell one’s story, the notion that we have multiple selves must be taken into consideration to fully understand the potential of narrative. Strawson introduces developmental psychologist Erik Erikson as an avenue into the world of having multiple selves that do not require narratives to be fully functional. He quotes Erikson as saying, “various selves…make up our composite Self. There are constant and often shocklike transitions between these selves… It takes, indeed, a healthy personality for the ‘I’ to be able to speak out of all these conditions in such a way that at any moment it can testify to a reasonably coherent Self”(Strawson). He elaborates that a narrative should not be used to tie all of these selves together. I agree with Strawson’s ideas about the capability of having multiple selves, but I disagree with the understanding that these selves are not dictated by narrative at all. It is inevitable that people will have different interpretations about the idea of what having multiple selves means, but I believe that each individual self has its own story to it, and when these stories are combined together, your identity is formed.
The plethora of forms of communication that are used to assist in telling a story gives narrative a great deal of power in identifying who you are. A story could be told through everyday actions like writing or speaking, or by more creative things, like dancing, videos, or my favorite, music. In my own narrative interview, I spoke with fellow UNE student, Sarah Smith, who speaks about how her experience with dance has allowed her to discover what she feels is her identity. She spoke about how she began dance at a very early age and the amazing journey that followed in the many years after, including a couple devastating injuries, that ultimately led to her being a dance teacher. She said that these life-changing experiences made her “more mature and responsible at a younger age than normal”, as well as becoming “a more hardworking and organized person.” She feels that her rigorous involvement with dance allowed her to become a more defined person with a real identity. An identity that helps her tell her own story that can describe who she is, and give her the opportunity to pass on her story to her dance students, who can interpret her teachings in a different way, as well as anyone else who wants to know who she is.
Narrative defines who we are, or who we want to be, by telling stories of our past, present, and future. These stories can be interpreted by many perspectives, depending on your background, culture, upbringing, or beliefs, and this allows hears the story to think of it in their own unique way. Also, the ability of having multiple selves in our minds that have their own behaviors and stories allow us to merge them together into one story, which we call our identity. Narratives can be told in many different forms and these forms can lead to many different interpretations. In conclusion, everyone is unique in the ways that they tell their stories, and how their stories are deciphered can define who they are, in their own eyes and in the eyes of others.
Works Cited
Beck, Julie. “Life’s Stories” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company., 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2019.
Strawson, Galen. “I am not a Story” Aeon. Aeon Media Group Ltd., 03 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Apr. 2019.
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