Lesson 1:5 – Introduction to Thomas King – Storytelling

The Truth About Stories

The Broken Heart

I have a story to tell. “I’ve heard this story many times, and each time someone tells the story, it changes. Sometimes the change is simply in the voice of the storyteller. Sometimes the change is in the details. Sometimes in the order of events. Other times it’s the dialogue or the response of the audience.” (pg.1) It’s the story of the first act of evil, perhaps not what you think it to be. The first act of evil was not murder or stealing or an act which we might now refer to as “illegal”, no this was an act of betrayal. Alas, not one of world-shattering betrayal, or war starting betrayal, but rather betrayal of the heart.

For you see, many many years ago, in the very first village on earth there lived many happy people. There was no pollution, or machinery or even money. No one fought and everyone loved. Of course, as humans since the beginning of time did, there were spats and disagreements but before every moonrise this village would make amends with each other to insure peaceful sleep.

Humanity would not be humanity without love, and this community was no exception. This village loved wholly and married for life. There was utmost faith put in soulmates and from birth every person was taught to love unconditionally above all else. The elders of the village would conduct ritual ceremonies to bind the hearts of two loves, to join them in union and holy matrimony. There was no ceremony of greater importance to the village, not one person was left out from attending and not one person ever interrupted, disagreed or stopped this ancient marital ceremony.

Since love was placed as the highest value of this village, soulmates loved forever, through life and through death. The bonds were so strong that if one soulmate was hurting the other could physically feel it from any distance. This balance was never interrupted, and everyone was inherently and deeply happy.

Until one day, right as the sun began to rise, the village seemed silent, upset, but no one knew why. In the outskirts of the village a pair of soulmates, who had been betrothed not one year were arguing. The man turned to his wife and said, “You are not my soulmate, I do not love you the way that they said I would, I wish to separate so I can find my real soulmate.”

Such words had never been spoken in this village. When there were spats, they were worked out before nightfall, soulmates never separated and were meant to love unconditionally through to the afterlife. The woman was shocked. Water began to fall from her eyes, something neither of the soulmates had ever seen, and then a pain began in the woman’s chest.

The man was shocked at these sensations, claiming she must not be human and must be something else, which is why he could not love her as he was instructed. He ran out of the shelter to the elders to tell them of this claim, that his soulmate was indeed not human and that he demanded a new soulmate. When he got to the den of the elders, water began to fall from their eyes too. The man was shocked, he asked “, Why are you doing that? My soulmate did that too! What is going on?”

The elders continued to emote in this unknown way, and they said to the man “, you have done it child, you have brought evil to our world, you betrayed and broke a heart.”

The man turned white, “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, I will fix it, I don’t know what evil is, but it doesn’t sound good! I take it back, I will love her, I can love her!” “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”. (pg.11)

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Reflection

Through this assignment I learned about the evolution of storytelling. I knew immediately that I wanted my story of evil to be something to do with human connection and emotion, because I believe that this truly is how “evil” came to be. I didn’t know what avenue I wanted my story to take, but I knew I wanted to word it sort of like a legend. I also wanted my story to be engaging, so before sharing my story with my three family members and four friends I wanted to learn how to tell a story and found this to be a useful resource!

I found through the different telling’s, my story evolved and shifted to suit the person I was telling it to. To my younger brother, the more fantastical elements came in – such as the afterlife and soul bonds, but when I first told it to my mom it was much more straightforward and to the point. This helped me to hone my story to be a combination of intrigue and information, yet still while keeping the crucial moral that once you tell a story it can never be taken back, as well as the common theme of how evil came into the world.

Since our course is also focused around First Nations culture, and Thomas King is a Aboriginal author, I turned to YouTube for some more live storytelling and found this simple but engaging cartoon adaptation of the well-known First Nations story of how the Raven stole the light, which also made me reflect on how I could cut down and make my story more simple for easier continuation of telling.

Overall this assignment really got me thinking about the importance of storytelling and the role it plays in carrying on tradition and culture. I had a great time being creative with this assignment and who knows? Maybe you will be hearing the story of The Broken Heart somewhere down the line!

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Citations

Fraser, Nick. “The Raven Steals the Light.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 Jan. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB3SgMP9QW8.

Goins, Jeff. “How to Tell Your Story without Boring Your Audience to Tears.” Goins, Writer, 21 Mar. 2018, goinswriter.com/tell-story/.

King, Thomas. “The Truth About Stories.” Weebly.com, Massey Lecture Series, 2003, cislit.weebly.com/uploads/2/6/1/1/26116552/the_truth_about_stories_by_thomas_king.pdf.