I have a great story to tell you. This story starts off with the children the most innocent and naive members of the village. The children that lived in the village all grew up being taught and told stories about the greatness of their leader. The village referred to their leader as Father as he was the protector and provider of the village. Every child learned in school the great story of how Father fought off the bad people who threatened the security of their village. The children loved hearing these stories and even created a game that they would play after school. The children would pretend to be Father and his army and would run and catch the other children who pretended to be the bad people. They ran through the woods with sharpened sticks yelling I am going to catch you and I am going to kill you, the game only ended when all the bad people were caught and ‘killed’.
The children had to attend school everyday, and everyday during class one child was picked to tell a story to the class. Most children told stories where they confessed their love for Father or of the greatness of Father. But today the story told was very different. Today a little girl named Lily was chosen to tell a story. Lily was an abnormally small orphan child who was adopted into their village, everyone loved Lily as she was very kind to everyone she knew. Lily started off her story by describing a beautiful scenery of a village that was nestle by a mountain next to a waterfall all the students were captivated as they never heard of a village this beautiful. A student cried out “I want to travel to this village it sounds like the setting of a fairytale!”. When Lily heard this her eyes got shallow and dark, “You can’t travel to this place anymore this village was burned to the ground and everyone is now dead,” she said in a hollow tone. The whole class waited for her to continue they were all on the edge of their seats. Lily then described the gory details of the burning and slaughtering of the people in this village, she ended her story by stating “the man that all of you refer to as father is the one who did this to my village”. Everyone gasped in horror, a few children started to cry, and the teacher’s face turned sickly pale. This was the first time the children learned about the evil that was present in their world. The teacher hurried to rush Lily out of the room, she then returned to the class telling them to forget the story and that it was not true. “But, of course, it was too late. For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world” (King, 10).
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories (CBC Massey Lectures) (p. 10). House of Anansi Press Inc. Kindle Edition.
Commentary what I discovered
I found this assignment more difficult then I expected. I actually had to do some extra reading when it comes to writing a story, I learned that it is always helpful to write stories that are similar to own events in your own life this helps you add real and authentic emotion into your story (Jenkins). Furthermore, I read about the importance of sharing your story and I felt having a fictional story that I could connect to myself is a way to get my story out in a way that does not feel like a violation or a threat to my privacy.
When reading my story out loud I felt it was great to get some feedback from my peers and I ended up changing my story a lot after reading it to them. I feel like when you share your story out loud you are forced to really hear what you are writing and this causes you to want to change things or to come up with new ideas to make it better.
Jenkins, Jerry B. “How to Write a Short Story: 9 Steps from a Best Selling Author.” Jerry Jenkins | Proven Writing Tips, Jerry Jenkins, 12 Nov. 2019, jerryjenkins.com/how-to-write-short-stories/.
“The Importance of Sharing Your Story.” Communication Skills | ReachOut Australia, au.reachout.com/articles/the-importance-of-sharing-your-story.
Hi Sidney,
Thanks for sharing your story! I really like how you managed to keep it similar in events to the story King shares (in that the main character sharing a story is what releases evil into the world) – I think you found a unique balance between a new setting, time, etc. but very similar events.
You mentioned you changed your story quite a lot after getting feedback, what about your story changed? Could you share what your editing process was like after you had shared your story?
Thanks!
Katarina
After sharing my story I realized from my friend that this story was totally based off of a TV show that I was watching at the time. I ended up subconsciously writing the same plot of the TV show I was watching just different characters and different setting. I then decided to make a lot of changes and try to incorporate a little bit more of my own life and experiences in the story I also tried to make it closer to Witches conference story.
Interesting how you were inspired by what you were watching, makes sense! Thanks!
Hi Sidney,
I really enjoyed reading your story.
I interpreted it as reflecting the violent processes of colonialism under the name of Christianity. I thought of the Residential Schools in Canada that tore Indigenous communities apart and assimilated the youth. These children were forced to conform to Euro-Christian beliefs and values. This included horrific violence, testing of food and medicine without consent, and punishing children for speaking their own languages.
Was there a specific example of colonialism you were referring to in this story? Or rather, the process of colonialism in general?
-Jade 🙂
Well, it’s interesting because when I was telling the story I was not initially thinking about colonialism. But after seeing it written down I realized that this could totally be applied to colonialism and I think I may have subconsciously wrote it this way as I have been thinking about colonialism a lot recently especially when it comes to this class. I initially wanted to write something that had to do with a naive child learning that everything they had ever known had been a lie as I feel like I have experienced this situation before.
Hi Sidney! Thank you for sharing your story, I really enjoyed reading it and I was honestly not expecting the plot twist towards the end in which it was “Father” who had committed all of the horrendous deeds. I like how you played with the utopia/dystopia dynamic by revealing the true nature of the leader, and how you did so through the universal practice of storytelling in a classroom. The shift in tone of the story told by Lily from scenic/beautiful to dark/haunting really goes to show the power that perspective has, and how the voice of the storyteller can influence the response of the reader. I am curious, what responses did you get from your friends/family when you told them this story? How did these responses lead you to change how you told it through your blog?
Looking forward to reading more of your work throughout the semester!
Like I said to Katarina my friend told me that my story was totally based off of the plot of a TV show that I watched, therefore I did have to change it a lot so that I was not copying the TV show. Also my friend decided to give me a bit of help and ideas and he read the Witches conference and suggested that I follow this plot more. Therefore I made the story sharing in the classroom is what realeses evil into the world. I also tried to base the story more off of my experience as I feel like I am like those naive children who have been lied to all there life.