Can Stories Educate You…Emotionally?

Hi,

          A story can sometimes develop more than simply your general knowledge. It can change the way you think, the way you interact with others and even the way you understand them, which in our days can be a useful skill in a great variety of occupations that humans have. 

In his essay, David Foster Wallace promotes a different type of perceiving the world, available to those who have learned how to think. His thesis is developed mostly around examples of situations which are most likely known to the audience. Such examples include the routine which sometimes appears in an individual’s life, or the feeling that sometimes everyone is simply in your way, a barrier between you and your goals. To be more specific, Wallace uses the example of a tired person, trying to buy everything that is needed from a crowded shop, instead of being where he wishes to be, at home, relaxing after a long day at work. Yet, in the end this feeling of frustration is diminished when the person decides to use his ability of switching from the automatic self-centered thinking  to conscious thinking and to sympathize with others and realize that they might just have an equally, if not much more stressful life.

This idea of “conscious thinking” being something that can be learned leads to the next idea which is the way in which literature can develop this type of thinking. Within literature, characters generally undergo different situations which make us as readers empathize with them, understand their feelings during moments of struggle or why not even glory. Observing the way characters interact is an important aspect since it can highlight the difference between what they believe and think of each other, and what actually does happen internally with each individual character. In other words, we are being given the chance to observe and understand the two (or more) different views of a situation, which is harder to do (yet not impossible) in real life. This is also what Wallace tries to explain within his speech, that thinking this way is difficult, yet it can be trained if one really wishes to.

Wallace’s theory about empathy being something that can be learned from literature is also applicable in what regards Alice Munro’s short stories. One example of short story could be “Free Radicals”. After the man who enters the woman’s house mentioned that he had killed his family, the first immediate reaction is to classify him as an ordinary murderer. However, his side of the story is also told, revealing his suffering as a kid, as well as the struggles he had faced because of his family, which for a brief moment could potentially cause the audience to empathize with him. This is an example of how knowing or thinking of a second version of a situation could influence your perception of it as a whole. Alice Munro’s short stories consist of many instances where characters interact and face their inner conflicts as well as external conflicts. These conflicts are some of the elements that allow the readers to empathize with the characters by offering the possibility of viewing a problem/situation from different angles.