Despite “Life Stories” being a long piece, it wasn’t extremely complicated and was relatable. When Julie Beck states, “storytelling, then –fictional or nonfictional, realistic or embellished with dragons –is a way of making sense of the world around us,” I immediately relate to fables and fairy tales that I was told as a kid. I completely agree with her statement, as books about fairies and dogs can relate to real life. I think about the story of the tortoise and the hare. There would never be a race between these two creatures, however it teaches children the valuable lesson that slow and steady wins the race. I was caught off guard later in the story by the quote, “Though agency may be good for you, does seeing yourself as a strong protagonist come at a cost to the other characters in your story?” When I first think of agency, and having control over your life, I do not think this correlate to controlling everything in your life. I was thinking you control what you do, where you go and your decisions. I did not have the same train of thought as Beck, although I completely agree that no one should ever think that those in their lives are their players. You can choose who you are close to in life, however you can make decisions on what the people in your life do. Finally, I disagreed with Beck’s and McAdam’s words, “‘You rewrite history.’ A life story is written in chalk, not ink, and it can be changed.” If she was talking about the future I would agree, after all you can always change your fate based on your actions today, however we don’t have time machines. The past is the past, we can learn from the past, and our interpretation of what has occurred will change, however you cannot just erase the past like you can a chalk board.
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I really love your relation to the writer, I believe you really connect with this writer. I do appreciate the relevant topics you pulled out that could be relatable to the common student. In addition, your ability to break it all down was really solid and made it all the more understanding. Would you say that the author is intentionally directing this piece of writing to an audience member like you?
I agree that the reading was very long but it was real and it had good information. I also found myself going back and thinking of fairytales as I read through. Having a lesson to a story was a big theme in the article and I seemed to notice that on every page. I did find some of the same things that you talked about were some of the same things that stuck out to me also. I like what you wrote and how you had agreements and disagreements. I think it’s always good to have both perspectives included. Great Job!