" . . . only the story . . . can continue beyond the war and the warrior. It is the story that outlives the sound of war-drums and the exploits of brave fighters. It is the story . . . that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it we are blind. Does the blind man own his escort? No, neither do we the story; rather it is the story than owns us and directs us."
--Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
--Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
In your own words, explain how this relationship, this dialog might be negotiated. How does the story "own us?" How does it "save us" or "direct us?" Can literature provide a lens through which we might view and attempt to understand the world around us and (perhaps more importantly) our role in the world? Does a story or the act of storytelling provide us with the tools we might need to shape our identities in this increasingly global and complex world which we inhabit?
14 comments:
here is what i think this blog means to me.
i think what he is talking about is that there are more important stories than just the war and the warrior.
this story has more to do with than just the main idea of the story, it has to do with more details.
yes literature helps me better understand the world because i think in a sense we have an idea of what is going on in the world but also in the sense that we cant really realte to what exactly is happening. literature kindof helps me understand my outer surroundings.
short story telling/stories help me understand life better when they have something that i can relate to.
from lauryn hunter
Liturature, in general, can have a major effect on people. Ussually there is a moral to a story or a metaphor that we are supposed to see through to guide us in life. We learn form what we do or what other people to, so hearing about it can save us from doing something bad or direct us into something great. Storytelling is a way for people to relate to other situations, so we can have a way to look at life in a different understanding, a more open-minded way.
-Kendall Swenson
Stories can guide the listeners to be aware of the impacts that we have on the people and world around us. Stories from past years can teach us about the unjust actions that have been inflicted on relijious groups and many different people all across the earth. Each person can learn a lesson, a key to survival or some other gift from stories. Children can be tought to repsect their elders from stories, or the youth of the our years can be tougt how to be better leaders in their futire years. A story is an insight to a world you might never have imagined.
I don’t feel that a story can control you. In reality everyone is responsible for their own actions; stories are around to help guide you. Everyone can learn from other people and others experiences. People can learn what works and what doesn’t work in life. They can read about problems and great misfortunes. People have the choice to listen but, they do not have to. If everyone listened to stories they heard everyone would be succeeding in life completing their goals. Stories can help guide you to something great but cannot “make” you become great.
Shawn Bennett
Achebe is trying to tell us that stories are important in our lives. Stories give us many significant lessons. They also allow us to build ethics. People often learn better by getting advice from other people. For example, when the people were first born, moralities were not existed. They create morality as they grow up by encountering various situation and many other people. Thus, stories can help us to guide our lives in better ways.
I think story telling can provide us with the tools we might need to shape our identities in this increasing global and complex world which we inhabit because stories can teach you lessons that rules will never teach you, with out stories some people would be lost. For example in “A long way gone” the only way people could learn what to do and what not to do was by hearing stories. This dialogue can be negotiated by some people saying this story isn’t important, you only need rules, and some might say stories teach people and rules just make a perfect person. I do think literature can provide a lens through which we might view and attempt to understand the world around us, because reading is a way of knowledge and a way to teach people thing through stories
I think this dialog is saying that liturature opens our thoughts. By reading stories, we can read things that we never knew before, so that we can learn more about the world. Literature can change our view to the world. I think that is what Achebe means by the story direct us. Story is like escort of the blind man, that the story escorts our ways to new thinking and more mature opinions.
I do not believe that stories can own us. People have to make their own discussions and they might be influenced by the stories they have heard but they do not have control over us. Stories can help you not make the same mistakes as others have made before you, but in the end it is up to you to make the discussion about your actions not the stories choose. Stories can also help shape what we are and our impact on the world today.
I believe that liturature can shape the lives people because there are some war stories that people tell during a war for hope that they might survive. Liturature can also directs us because it could tell of what our ancestors have done and that would direct us to do what they did but it does not control us to do something, unless you strongly beleive in what you are reading. Liturature can also give us a view of the world because it can have stories about other countries history.
-Cole Bingham
Stories can direct and save us in the sense that we follow them and learn from them, thus saving us from making the same mistakes we have already made in the past. They direct us to a brighter future and give us knowledge to move foward succesfully, they own us because the direct us, they save us, with the stories we know where we have come from which gives us a much better sense of where we are going. Literature very much so does provide a lens through which we might view and understand the world around us and our role in the world, not only because it provides us a great deal of information about the things we dont know but becasue it gives us examples to learn from and feed off of. The act of storytelling does provide us with the tools we might need to shape our identities in this increasingly global and complex world in which we inhabit because tehy teach us so much; about what we dont know, what we do know, and what we dont understand.
I feel that a good story is a story you can relate to. The facts that you learn from the stories you read. You use them in your life to undergo problems in your own life. Stories can help you pursue who you are going to be in this world. By reading a career you are interested in, or thinking life in a different perspective. Each culture has different stories that have been passed down from generations. That usually has a good moral or lesson to be learned. People have uses these stories to help them in their everyday lives in their own way.
-Carolyn Holland
What Achebe said indicated why stories are so important that sometimes they exceed the original fact. This story is based on a war and the warriors, but it is not exactly the same as what actually happened. We know generally about the war and warriors. What we don’t know and what the story can bring us are much deeper meanings it gave the war and the warriors. Without stories, the war will be just a random page in history books which means nothing to everyone. It is the stories that have the spirit and make it worth for us to read and think. By thinking deeply about the stories, we learn from the stories. Leading by the stories, we are able to get the truth that the authors want to tell us. The final goal of a story is to make the readers understand and agree with what the author is trying to explain and imply between the lines. That’s one part of why stories are directing us. When we were very young, we started reading stories. And we will be reading stories for the whole life. Stories affect, sometimes shape people’s life in some ways. People that read more tend to be more mature and deep thinkers. Also when people like a story most of the time is because they are greatly touched or affected by the story. That’s the other way when stories direct us in our life.
Stories are like guides, that's what Achebe is trying to say. In fact, in human lives, almost everything is made up of stories. The history I take in G period, is originated from "his story". The stories usually have some kind of moral in side them. Achebe is indicating that it is these morals that leads us in life to make right choices.
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