The Truth About Stories By Thomas King

In “The Truth about Stories”, Thomas King, demonstrate connection between the Native storytelling and the authentic world. He examines various themes in the stories such as; oppression, racism, identity and discrimination. He uses the creational stories and implies in to the world today and points out the racism and identity issues the Native people went through and are going through. The surroundings shape individuals’ life and a story plays vital roles. How one tells a story has huge impact on the listeners and readers. King uses sarcastic tone as he tells the current stories of Native people and his experiences. He points out to the events and incidents such as the government apologizing for the colonialism, however, words remains as

Recently, scholars have analyzed King’s (2003) chapter You’ll Never Believe What Happened is Always a Good Way to Start, with the intent to discover King’s rhetorical techniques and overall purpose. At the time of his speech, the world was “predominantly scientific, capitalistic, Judeo-Christian” (p.12). Firstly, Cassandra Plettell (2017) found that King utilizes ethos to demonstrate how stories may alter an individual’s perception (p.2). Similarly, Emma Murphy (2017) found that King uses ethos and pathos that “portrays the idea that stories have the ability to greatly impact individuals’ lives” (p.2). Then, Ajodeji Edna Adetimechin (2017) found that King uses ethos, pathos, and logos to convince his audience of the influential power that stories “have in shaping perspectives” (p.2). In general, they have found that King’s purpose is regarding the influential powers of stories with the use of ethos, pathos and/or logos. In addition to Plettell, Murphy and Adetimechin’s finding, I would like to go a step further and argue that King’s overall purpose is to persuade the audience that the Genesis creation story has formulated a culture that lacks forgiveness, compassion, and unity (King, 2003, pp.24-27). Inclusively, I will argue how King utilizes his personal experiences with stories, emotional appeals, and writing arrangement in order to gradually persuade his highly intellectual audience.

These oral stories, or histories, provides historical actors with an opportunity to depict their own stories in their own words, where usual written records often discount the great unwashed. For Indigenous peoples, individuality is critical to shared histories. Politicians, activists, and business leaders may materialize frequently in official documents and the media, usually manipulating it for their purposes, but the rest of us very seldom do. In The Back of The Turtle, Kings portrays a identical similar setting; a world full of media coverage that is manipulated by large companies, such as Dominion; “‘A spill?’ ‘No’ said Winter. “But evidently there has been some seepage. Possibly from one of our ponds.’ ‘Didn’t we fund an environmental

What makes you different then someone else? Do you really believe that someone is different than you by the way they look? do we believe this to be true? Who’s to say we aren’t all the same? While undefined I think it is crazy how they are treated.

“I’m gonna go after Sarah!” Luke screamed over the noise and without second thought, he took off running. My eyes went wide as he was immediately lost in the crowd of walkers.

Stories apply to all human life in some way or another. In a story where a criminal hurt someone and the hero chases after him many people think that in order for justice to be received, the hero should do something back to the criminal. This makes the hero just as bad as the criminal. It is revenge. In Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mocking Bird many small plot twists show true justice. In the world many people do wrongs, but some special people do give justice, by what is right, kind and pure.

Thomas King portrays absorbing and idiosyncratic reasoning behind why Aboriginal stories are the forefront of cultural erudition in his text The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Aboriginals rely on storytelling to, “teach about cultural beliefs, values, customs, rituals, history…” and to, “pass on the… teachings of our ancestors” to ensure the continuity of tradition and information (Hanna & Henry, 1995). King authenticates the importance of keeping Aboriginal heritage alive as he delicately balances detail with knowledge in his five stories that paint an illustration of how stories shape both Aboriginal and Western societies. Discussions that King engages the reader in include topics such as Aboriginal identity, capitalism, colonialism,

What is lost is the art of the storyteller who, in the telling of the stories of a culture, passed on the tradition from one generation to the next and with it the wisdom of experience. This wisdom is nothing less than the knowledge and skill necessary to integrate the experiences contained in tradition into the real lives of the listeners, to make them conscious of history.

It was over. The dream of a new world, of Albion, had died on the battlefield at Camlann.

History is often regarded as strictly defined and unyielding, particularly by those who uphold the rationalist view that it is possible for a human being to objectively record observations of an event. However, the romantic view of reading history is more in line with the reality that all nonfiction literature is subject to the bias of those writing it. The romantic approach embraces what those fixated on their rationalist views try desperately to ignore, which is the fact that history is fundamentally a record of an individual’s personal experience. To learn from a historical account, one must treat an author’s bias as an opportunity to uncover “truths” that can be even more meaningful than the unattainable accurate representation of facts. A primary example of how history can be obscured by writers is the way in which two Englishmen, William Bradford (1590-1657) and Thomas Morton (1579-1647), provide two very different accounts of the same events in Of Plymouth Plantation and in New English Canaan respectively. Both men are affected by the desire to promote their beliefs and to make their tales appear authentic; therefore, both accounts are biased. After evaluating the two authors’ backgrounds and beliefs and how they affect their writing, as well as the discrepancies within the two narratives, a critical reader may regard Morton’s account as more credible. Personally, it was not the inconsistencies in either account that were

Throughout all of history, human beings have been storytellers. Humans have always sought to explain the unknown, understand themselves and the world around them, and connect through myth, story, and gossip. This transcendent nature of mythology proves it is much more than mere stories. Humans tell stories because they yearn to order the world to their lives. The real distinction between humans and other animals is not simply intelligence or reason, but the ability to share our stories. They uniquely connect all of human existence to act as a group in order to be more than just individuals. Humans desire connection as much as they desire order, and myth unites these primal desires. Cynthia Ozick explains the unity between the desires in her

While today history is taught through textbooks in classrooms across the world, history, before written language even existed, was passed down orally and conveyed by stories told around a fire; the histories and cultures of entire peoples were passed down by word of mouth. Even once written language came to be, stories remained the primary source of recounting history and culture to future generations. Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Storyteller revolves around this idea of storytelling as a means to shape and form culture as Llosa describes an outsider who takes on the role of the main orator of a tribe in Peru. Llosa both alternates between insider and outsider narratives in The Storyteller and presents an unreliable narrator in a position of power

Many people tell stories to inform others about themselves. Throughout my life people in my family have told me many stories, and behind each story there is a purpose. The stories I was told growing up were about experiences that people in my family have had or things that I have done. These stories mean a lot to me because through these stories different family members reveal many things about themselves. They want me to understand their ideas, beliefs, or feelings about a certain subject. They want people to praise or admire what they have done or accomplished. Funny stories are told to humor or embarrass someone, usually me. Other stories express that we are not alone in the world, and there are other people,

Though it is known that the history of storytelling is quite ancient, stories still play a crucial part of our societies and cultures. Its influence is in almost every aspect of human life whether it be movies, books, music, news, religion, or art. Stories are what define us and our morals, our dreams, our prejudices, and our desires. Typically, oral stories are handed down generation to generation. It is not known who or when the first story was told, much less what the first story was (History).

Today's society contains stories that model the ideal life that each individual lives each day. Stories may shape our mind in creative and positive ways that may enlighten the road towards the future. They have been examples for us to survive by and thrive on for decades: in the past, and now, continuing in the future. People around the world have been told stories that may have influenced their lives in a unique way. Children long to be enlightened by stories that fill their young and fruitful minds, allowing thoughts and new ideas to be instilled. Throughout the worlds' cultures and literature, stories have influenced the actions and morals of man with their underlying