Storytelling In Eckerd's Life Of Pi

Welcome back to freshman year. Do you miss it? Part of me hopes you will. Throughout my time so far at Eckerd, I have been struck by the continuity of storytelling. The power these stories have over people is tremendous and enticing. But, why do people tell stories? Storytelling can act as a pathway to the greater level of happiness. There is a certain relief that is associated with the act of writing down a story. It can be used as therapy or rehabilitation. Storytelling can also preserve an idea or culture. A story is an introverts way of talking and spreading ideas, you know this well. In human experience, we have looked at many literary works that have made me think about why we write stories. At the beginning of fall semester, I believed that stories were created mainly with the pursuit of exploration and happiness in mind.
“Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin operated in this way. Omelas was described as a utopian city that operated at a dark cost. The story explored the connections of justice and empathy. The novel Life of Pi also told a story that explored the happenings of a shipwreck and duality of survival. The next type of storytelling I discovered is the cultural component. This type of story acts as a preserver for time and information. The readings, Gilgamesh and Ignorance address this in very different ways. The last type of motivation for stories is to cultivate therapy. Night by Elie Wiesel and Sacred Ground by Eboo Patel are both stories that can be used by the author to address hardships in life. Storytelling is an art that has been modified throughout time to fit many needs and