Stories have probably existed for as long as humanity has existed. We love to tell stories about ourselves and our experiences, whether they are good or bad. Stories over time also get passed down and they can become memorable. Us humans do tend to think of our lives as stories. In this article by Tom Corson-Knowles, he writes about why these stories are important for not only our lives but our culture as well. Stories can be universal, understand ourselves, teach us a lesson, broaden our perspective and even help us better understand others. Stories shape who we are.

In the text, Griffin mentions Fisher and his beliefs. Griffin states that “He [Fisher] is convinced that that we are narrative beings who “experience and comprehend life as a series of ongoing narratives, as conflicts, characters, beginnings, middles and ends.”” (297). This means that human communication can be seen as stories. Additionally we often tell these through narratives. Narration is defined as “Symbolic actions—words and/or deed—that have sequence and meaning for those who live create or interpret them.” (299). You can see these symbols in many stories, some great examples are cultural stories like myths, legends or traditions. Much of our communication is through narratives. The narrative paradigm is defined as, “A theoretical framework that views narrative as the bases if all human communication.” (300). We tell stories everyday, in our personal lives, at school or even at work.

How we tell stories, the stories that are passed down and the stories of our cultures can all be used to help understand the narrative paradigm. First and foremost, one of Fishers main beliefs is that we communicate and understand our lives as stories. When we tell others about our lives we are telling each other about our experiences and emotions that we felt at the time, along with the lessons learned during those moments. Additionally, we do often see our lives, as the beginning, middle and end. Our beginnings are our birth and childhood the middle of our story could be where we are in our lives and the end is when we near the end of our lives. Stories of our cultures always have symbolic meanings in them, which can be used as examples of narration (now that does not mean that the story is untrue). One story that you can look at is the story of Rapunzel. It teaches about the consequences of stealing and how important patients and determination are. Humans are storytellers and these stories are important can can teach us many lessons. They can teach us how to act and give us wisdom. They can influence the way we communicate, our opinions on genre and so on. Stories can influence us in different ways, especially if it is something that we see as believable or fits in, in our beliefs. When stories do fit our morals or the beliefs that we have, this is when stories are most influential to us. This is why can tell so much about us and who we are.