RS 108B

Reflection Paper 2

Due 10/6/00

Reflecting Morality:

The Stories We Tell and the Way We Live

Story telling is an important part of teaching and learning in human society. In any religion, in any country, a people’s origin, history, and future are expressed in story form. Why are stories so important to humans? And how can they teach us in ways that no other medium can?

Stories are enjoyable. As the example at the beginning of Connors’ Chapter 5, “Morality and Stories”, shows, statistics and outlines are informative but dull; but a good story can give the same information, and be interesting and exciting for both the speaker and the listeners. Stories make people want to listen to what is being said. Stories entertain us, and a side effect is learning. Stories can be used to teach history, or beliefs, or opinions, or lessons in morality.

The reason that good stories are so interesting to us, and are such a useful teaching tool, is that they combine many different aspects of life and rules in order to teach many different lessons at one time. They bring lessons together in a lifelike way, so that we can understand them and relate to them as people. If you were to say to another person, “It is good to be honest.”, the message would be heard and almost immediately forgotten. However, If you create a character who is not honest, and tell a tale of how a dishonest person can hurt others and himself, you have created a place in which people can put themselves, and can relate to the story in a human way. It is in this way that we learn; not by memorization, but by experience, even if it is in our own imagination.

Stories also can be used to teach morality in situations that we might never experience. They help us to understand the ways of life of people from another time or another place, so that we can have a greater understanding of humanity and our place in it. For instance, I will most likely never be a starving citizen of a third world country. However, because of the stories I have been told about places less fortunate, I can become more morally just by appreciating the things that I have, even though I may never be without them. If it weren’t for these stories, I would assume that everyone has the food and clothing that I have, and would take it for granted. But because of the stories, I can be sympathetic to the situation, even if I will most likely never be in it.

Stories can also be an important tool for people to express who they are. I recently moved to Philadelphia from a small town in Southern Illinois. I knew no one when I moved out here. Since I have been meeting many new people lately, I have found that stories tell much more about a person than simple facts. For instance, when I first met my friend and co-worker Lee, she told me that she is Portugese, and was recently married. These are facts are certainly true about Lee, but they don’t give me any idea about who she really is. It was when she told me about her wedding, and her new husband, and the trips to visit her family in Portugal, that I began to know her as an individual. They showed me the parts of her life that she values, and some of the morals that are important to her. Without stories, I would have had to experience these things with Lee in order to know her.

One of the biggest reasons that stories are so effective and so important is that we, ourselves, are stories. Our lives are one continuous story, full of morality judgements and decisions that no one can make but ourselves. We each make our own decisions, for better or for worse, and we teach morality to the people around us by these examples. That is why it is so very important to not only tell stories that are full of meaning and just morals, but to live that story as well. People follow by example, and by showing that we can live an upright moral story, we can encourage others to do the same.