I have a great story to tell you, it’s the story of how evil came into the world.
There once was a vast and powerful kingdom that encompassed the entire known world. And in that kingdom lived a young, king and good prince. His entire kingdom was at peace there was no hunger, or killings or envy. There was no need to steal or kill as the world was perfect and the people pure. And it was all thanks to the advice and kindness of the young prince.
On one sunny day, the prince left his castle and went into town. As he was wandering around a young boy came to the prince and asked him for advice.
The boy asked the prince, “my prince, my sister and I have just lost our mother and are afraid to be without her.”
The prince felt pity for this young naive boy, who had lost someone so young. Though his kingdom was good and his people pure, humans exist in a cycle of life and death. He told the boy, that the world gives us many challenges but not to worry, and told him of the story of how through death may take away loved ones, they would be with us in spirit and see them in the next world. The boy thanked the prince for his kind words and soon left.
The next day the prince went into town and tried to find the boy, but when he went into town he found two coffins. He asked the villages what had happened.
The closest one informed him, “the young boy from the last house to the left stabbed his sister and himself to death.”
The prince was shocked, in his grief and naivety the boy had killed them both so that he would not have to be tormented with her loss. The story that the prince had told the young boy in order to bring him some joy had, in the end, resulted in the creation of the evil that is murder.
“Once you have told a story, you can never take it back. So, be careful of the stories you tell, AND the stories you listen to.” (King, 10)
The first time I wrote the story it was all over the place and I didn’t really know what I was trying to say. I went over it and found that I forgot the most important thing, fables are supposed to be short and to the point, which my story was not. So as I told it, again and again, it became more coherent, and as Andrew Stanton advised, the repetition made me able to pick out what was more important for me to say in the moral, what was my character, their goal and what moral lesson can I teach with my characters. The story refined itself through its constant repetition, but it did make itself simpler with each repetition, easier to tell and digest for my listeners.
Reference
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. House of Anansi, 2003.
Limited, Alamy. “Stock Photo – Good Vs Evil – Two-Way Street Sign.” Alamy, https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-good-vs-evil-two-way-street-sign-114769861.html. Accessed 23 Jan. 2020.
Stanton, Andrew. The Clues to a Great Story. www.ted.com, https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story. Accessed 23 Jan. 2020.
Hi Nargiza,
I like your story, even though it’s so sad ending. It delivers an important warning that stories can be eye-opening and dangerous, inspiring and destructive. I would also assume that the same story may become inspiring and destructive, depending on the audience and how they receive it. The story told to an adult not always can be told to a child in the same form and expressions. As King points out in the first chapter in The Truth About Stories “Why we tell our children that life is hard, when we could just as easily tell them that it is sweet”(26). So, my interpretation of the moral of your story is that the storyteller should be careful of what is told, as well is how it’s told and to whom.
Hi Zhanna! Thanks for commenting! You got the moral of my story down nicely. Like others I’ve always associated evil as a binary with good. You really don’t understand the one without the other, because they define each other through their differences. But paradoxically the more they try to differentiate each other, they can be found together all the time. So though the story I was hoping to showcase that, that evil can only be defined only when we know what good is or how many of us don’t understand the concepts on their own by rather through actions. So a story of trying to do good leading to evil seemed like a nice way to try and explain that! Thanks for commenting!
Hello Nargiza,
I enjoyed reading your story. What caught my attention is the method you used to get your story coherent. What I did with my story was the opposite. I wrote down the story first ( which took me days to get the story plot together) and tried to tell the story the way I wrote it. I wish I took your approach because naturally stories are developed orally before they are written. One of the challenges I had when I told people the story was, they interrupted me and ask questions. If I was just telling I could have reiterate the story but instead I had to force it the way I told it.
That’s really interesting, but now that I think about it, I write short stories in my free time and when I do, I write down the plot and such as well. But for this assignment I think I tried a more oral approach because when I was young I’d always hear fables, or had it read out loud to me. Even now, one of my favourite subjects is history and I love hearing them from documentaries, and they always seem like some fantastical story. I also feel like we’re all some what good at tell short stories in our everyday lives, for me it’s gossip, hahaha, so it felt a little more natural in that way!
Hi Nargiza,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story because it reminded me that sometimes stories we say, that we think are innocent enough, can mean different things to other people. In your case, a boy who had a different circumstance than the prince, interpreted his story differently. I fundamentally believe that in order to really understand someone, we must leave our bubble of privilege and what we know, and see the world through their eyes. I also found interesting that your story conveys the power of storytelling, and how it can influence someone to do something such as murder another.
Hi Sashini! Thanks for the comment! I always found evil to be interesting because we only really understand it as the opposite of good, but dichotomies are never totally separated from each other and often have bits of the other in them. Which is why I choose this tragic route, though I know that such a simplistic look at evil is childish in a way, I felt that the first ‘evil’ that a person did would be the result of trying to do good. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Nargiza,
I really enjoyed your story. I was wondering — since the beginning of evil, in your telling, was essentially a misunderstanding — do you think that most evil today stems from communication errors, or misunderstanding, at its root?
Thanks!
Jack
Hi Jack, that’s an interesting question. I’d say that, no I don’t think most evil stems from misunderstandings or communication errors. The story was more on a commentary on the dichotomy of good and evil. Evil can only really be understood as an opposite to good, and good is only created when evil is known, because then you can say that something is good, while the other is not. And it would be wrong for me to say that evil comes from miscommunication when I think the world is full of evil, especially in things we consider good. Like love for example, I think love is evil in a way, because we can’t really love everything, we generally have our favourites and we can’t love everyone in the world. So in that way love creates exclusion, and exceptions to a person. In addition I can’t say, ‘oh this dictator was actually misunderstood and that’s why we think he’s evil.’ That really doesn’t work, but evil is violent and often characterized by disorder, which misunderstands are as well. So while they may have some similarities and can be related to cause the other, evil stems for many other things such as love.
Thanks for commenting I really enjoyed trying to answer your question!
Hi Nargiza. I loved your story! However, more than anything, I loved your reflection.
When telling my story I, too, felt like I was all over the place. I had so much to say and wanted to develop a story, theme, characters, etc. Really what matters is how you tell your story and how effective you are in delivering a short but powerful message. I really could have used this advice when writing my story because I feel like I rambled a bit. I should always edit down!
My question for you is more of a fun one! Speaking of editing, if you could edit your story down into two sentences (not including the part we had to include) what would those sentences be? This was an exercise in a previous class I took and it is always a hard but rewarding task when it comes to editing down one’s work to the most important aspects.
Great work!
Hi Chase! Your question is really interesting. The two sentences I would use to express my story would probably be, “On day a good and kind prince told a boy not to feel sad about his mothers passing, as he would see her in the next life. The next day the boy had killed himself to see his mother sooner.” Which would basically summarize my story. I really enjoyed trying this, as it reminded me of those morals or short sayings you often hear, it really brings into focus the message that the story tired to tell.
Thank you for the comment!