After hearing Ms. Adichie , it is clear that hearing one side of the story misconstrues the reality altogether. It provides bias And negativity which leads to horrifying societal outcomes. There needs to be unbiased and true narrative of the story which provides the pure essence of the story hence protecting the integrity of the story.
In her blog post, Ms .Adiche begins to describe story telling as a ‘representation of reality’. In the era when Adiche was a kid, she talks about how the protagonist of a conventional American story would be a beautiful girl with blue eyes and her locks neatly tied into a pony tail. The story is set out in the beautiful mountains of Colorado and narrates the calm life of this beautiful American girl. This story is devoid of the reality of crime, political upheavals, social disparity and many other things they may have been a part of that serene life of the blue-eyed girl. To a reader, this story becomes the reality.
I agree with Adiche but would like to humbly add to this interpretation. In my view, story-tellin is a ‘representation of reality’ BUT only of the ‘story teller’ !
Can story telling be labelled as truth or lies?The story teller is an ordinary human, with his/her own imagination, prejudices and biases;hatred and love. Aren’t we all entitled to them?
The story told by the narrator, can be best termed as the reality or imagination as perceived by the narrator. Is the story true? Or Is the story full of lies? Is the story complete? Or Is the story partially incomplete? In my opinion, the honesty of a story is limited to the figment of the story teller’s imagination, knowledge and intent. Truth, reality, righteousness all fall prey to subjectivity.
Does a story teller have an obligation to narrate the story in a particular way?
A story teller can be a human, an institution, a government or a state. Is the story teller obligated to narrate the story to give a more wholistic perspective to the readers? Ideally, the answer to this question should be in the affirmative. However, in real world, this is far from true. Like every human – every institution, every government or state has its own reality. Again, is their version a representation of the complete truth? Let’s look at the story told by the news channels in Palestine as compared to that of Israel. Which story is true? And which is compete?
You may never be able to give a definite answer to these questions but can definitely read on to the next point of discussion below!
What is the role of a reader?
If a readers’ mind is a wide ocean, then one sided story-telling, political agendas, power driven campaigns, can be termed as pollutants. As we speak about story-telling as source of communication let us not forget the other end of this process, i.e. ‘reception of story-telling’.
This is where the role a reader comes in. As Adiche expressed, a young reader is vulnerable as his/her mind is like a virgin field. As a reader, for our own enlightenment, it is imperative to seek the complete story. We may find it as a part of different stories, yet, the determination to elevate ourselves from the one-sided story and seek to have a multi-dimensional holistic view of the story, is vital.
What can the mankind make out of the art ‘story telling’? The biggest difference between mankind and the animal world is not intelligence but ‘intellect’.
Evolution has gifted us the power to read, write and transfer this wisdom from one generation to the other. As beautifully captured by Adiche, story-telling has the power to break stereotypes, rebuild broker dignities, express different perspective and become a tool to many positive changes in this world.
I agree with Adiche, but again would like to humbly add – story telling along with reception of story by aware and open-minded readers together makes a weapon to destroy evils of a society. In fact, history is a witness to the fact that the combination of story-telling and open-minded readers has been the seed of every revolution across boundaries and states in the world. As the human race evolves, the question is how well will the mankind use this lethal tool in the present and furture?