What are the major differences or similarities between the ethos of the creation story you are familiar with and the story King tells in The Truth About Stories?
First off I chose this question because I was so intrigued by it’s hidden complexity. I actually had to look up and research the definition of ethos because I was a little confused of the context it’s used in here. However, after researching I was enlightened by the question even more. When I looked up the definition of ethos in The Oxford English Dictionary, I found the first two definitions to be the most useful for this assignment. The first defines ethos as a “character or characterization as revealed in action or its representation; the quality of the permanent, as opposed to the transient or emotional”(OED). The second, defines ethos as “the characteristic spirit of a people, community, culture, or era as manifested in its attitudes and aspirations; the prevailing character of an institution or system”(OED). I also found this article a very interesting read because it focused on the patterns of ethos and its comparisons to personality traits. My understanding of ethos is to enhance a reader’s knowledge of a particular story and to give it a credible history. Ethos should help a reader understand the story and persuade them into believe that a story is real or true based on the way it’s told and the characterization within the story. I think this is important to remember when comparing and contrasting the story of creation that I was told as a child and the story that King told us in The Truth About Stories.
While comparing the creation story I was told and King’s version, I found the ethos to be very different. I found my creation story to be straight to the facts, with little to no room for readers to express emotion or general feelings towards a particular character in the story. However, with King’s story I found the ethos within the story to really engage with me as a reader. I found my emotions and feelings towards the story more engaging than I did when I was told the creation story I grew up with strictly based on the content of the story. King tells his story, as he mentions, in a Native story-telling way, which provokes emotions, plays with human interaction, and gets a reader’s mind thinking. King tells the story with overwhelming emotion, you almost feel like he is reading the story aloud to you, even though you are reading the story from the text. The way in which he tells the story makes it come alive.
In comparison to the creation story I was told, the Adam and Eve bible version, ethos did not play a large part in the actual story itself. This story was driven from facts from the Bible and was told in a manor that reiterated what the Bible had said. However, when I was younger my parent’s put a lot of effort into story telling and I feel that they almost told the story to me in a way comparable to King, even though the context differed, the way in which it was told was similar. My parent’s made a habit of exaggerating everything, from us finishing the food on our plates at dinner; to the stories they told us before bed. The Adam and Eve creation story was no differ and I believe I was lucky to have been exposed to this type of story telling. The ethos in my parent’s version and King’s version were definitely more similar than they were different.
Of course, the content of each story differs and it will differ to each and every individual. Even though some of us may have grown up with the same creations stories, most likely the way in which they were told differ in some type of way. I believe that we are all lucky to have had our different exposures because we are now able to create our own versions of stories, which may mimic or be polar-opposite to the ones we were once told.
Here was a neat little cartoon that displayed the same amount of confusion I had for ethos when I first looked it up!
Works Cited
“Ethos, Logos, Pathos”. Youtube. 2001. Web. 8 Mar 2015.
McCrae, Robert R. Personality Profiles of Cultures: Patterns of Ethos. Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health and Human Services. 2009. 8 Mar 2015.
The Oxford English Dictionary Online. The Oxford University Press. 2015. 8 Mar 2015.
Hi Jessica! Thanks for your blog post!
I wanted to comment on your blog post because of your choice to answer this particular question. The reason is that I find it fascinating when people connect with creation stories. Let me explain. I grew up in a very non-religious family and upbringing. By no means am I automatically tying in beliefs about creation solely to religion, but I just was never told any creation stories growing up. The World as I knew it, just…was. It was an entirely foreign idea to me until high school rolled around; questions of how the World ‘came to be’.
I think you word it perfectly when you claim that “the content of each story differs and it will differ to each and every individual”. Having no background or experience in hearing these creation stories, I have no reason to judge one over the other, but myself as an individual will still tell the story of my liking differently than anyone else. I guess this is what you were alluding to when you speak about “different exposures” to creation stories, and creating our own versions. I think I have trouble with coming to terms to ‘creation’ and ‘story’ coming together, both in my mind at least, having a certain notion of fiction or performance. People create stories. Is this a naive thought process due to my lack of exposure to creation stories?
Personally, I’m having trouble coming to terms with which story I choose to believe. Can I believe in more than one? Can I choose…not to believe in any?
Here’s hoping you ca help me out a bit,
Thanks,
– Jeffrey
Hey Jeff!
Wow thanks for this post, you really made my day with this. I am so fascinated by your ideas of “creation” and “story” and how those two terms do not seem to go together so well. I tend to agree and disagree with this. As you may no, I am a quite indecisive person, if I lean one way I will most likely lean the other way in a matter of time. I always like to weigh out all my options and then make my decision. As for the term “story” you’re totally right, people create stories all the time. The process of story telling must have some element of creation in it right? I say that because no story is essentially the same if it is told by another person, therefore the story would have to change, even the tiniest bit, from story to story.
As for a creation story, I think that is so great about the idea of creation. There are so many different stories and different myths about creation and how the World came to be. However, I am not one to believe in all of them but if I could hear every single story I would because I love how individualistic they are and how much they differ. I think you have the World in your hands and you have a leap on many of us because you don’t have a background story that was told to you when you were small. You now have the capability to evaluate every creation story and decide whether you like it, don’t like, believe in it or don’t, how awesome is that? I say that you have an advantage, in my opinion which is totally my own view and I am aware many may disagree, because you don’t have a story that you will go back to in your head. Although I now have many stories that I like and parts that I believe in, I don’t necessarily have the freedom to jump into a new creation story in my mind without comparing it to the Bible story of Adam and Eve that I was told when I was younger. I think my parents really helped drive my own creation story based on the way they told it, therefore I always go back to compare others to my own.
I think we are able to believe in multiple stories because we can like certain aspects of one and not an aspect of another. Therefore we can build our own story in our minds and have our own version of creation. Of course you do not have to believe in a story at all, that’s totally up to you and we are lucky to live in a society where we have so much freedom.
I hope I helped a bit and didn’t confuse you. If you ever come up with a creation story of your own, I would love to hear it and explore the story with you.
Thanks so much for the post!
Jessica R
Hi Jessica,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I answered the same question and I agree that I also liked the complexity that it offered. I answered mine quite differently however as I chose a different creation story to discuss. I think that with all creation stories there will be some similarities, they are after all all explanations for the same thing. I really enjoyed that you included a definition of ethos because similarly to the question, the definition is much more complex than one might first expect. I also had to look it up before writing my answer. My question is, had you grown up with a different creation story how might it have affected your life differently? Because they are simply different versions of the same story how does one telling really differ from another?
– Jennifer H
Hey Jennifer,
Thanks for checking out my blog! I’m glad you found the same complexity in the question as I did. I really think looking up the ethos definition helped me understand how to answer this simple yet complex question a little better. As for your question, wow this is hard! For a little background, my parents are divorced and my dad wasn’t raised catholic and my mom was. So they made the choice to bring my brother and I up as catholic and we could choose when we were older what we wanted to decide. I think that growing up I was told one thing but I was also enlightened with many other stories. My dad was a great story telling and he respected us being raised catholic but never just exposed us to one specific story. As I mentioned in other comments, I mostly believe the creation story I was told because of the way my mom told it. She has always been passionate in story telling and for that I think that’s the story I go back too. I don’t know if my life would be different. I think I feel really lucky to have been exposed to many stories but I also feel comfort in knowing I have a story to go back too. Does that make sense?
I think we tell that stories are different from one another based on the way they are told and who tells them to us. For example, I am really close with my mom so her version of a story would be more important than say a strangers. It doesn’t mean I would totally ignore the strangers story, I would just value my moms as more important because I love her and she is close to me. I hope that makes sense! Thanks for the insightful questions you gave me a lot to think about.
Jessica R
Hi Jessica,
The way you discussed creation stories sort of reminded me of Nasty Bumppo’s discussion of Indian and White gifts. Y’know how he says Whites are rational? The Bible, as you may or may not agree, is so hyper rationalized with its facts and lack of emotion, it doesn’t seem like they’re trying to appeal to emotion in any way. It’s definitely just cold, hard facts, the way I read it. Even as a kid. They can dress it up as many pictures as they like, but it’s kind of the same. Stories are more like cautionary tales and modes of behaviour we should adhere to.
Genesis is particularly vague (or else Milton would have nothing to do, I imagine). I found King’s renditions of Genesis to be plausible within the gaps the Bible leave us, but did you find it offensive at all? I don’t know if you’re religious, but I think if I was I would be pretty appalled at the pervert Noah, for instance. As entertaining as King’s story was, did you find it as educational as the Bible is intended to be? Do you find that the two types of storytelling suit their purpose?
Florence
Hi Florence,
Indeed I found King’s version a little offensive but I definitely took it with a grain of salt. I don’t practice to often now, but I still believe in God and keep my Catholic faith in my heart. So on that side of it yes, but I really enjoyed King’s version. It opens your eyes to new possibilities and kinda just smacks you in the face, for lack of a better term. I didn’t find it as educational as the Bible, in Biblical fact terms, but I did find it educational in a sense of open-mindedness. I’ll explain. Like you mentioned, the Bible gives us straight facts, these facts are the way things should be and that’s how they are. However, King reaches out with emotion and I think that teaches us in different ways, in more ways than the Bible is because we are starting to question ourselves. We decide which ideas we want to value, which concepts we like better than others, and which we believe. I like how King teaches us about ourselves and I found that really important.
Thanks for the post!
Jessica R