Afterwards: Private Stories
Please respond to one or more of the following prompts in 2-3 paragraphs.
- In this chapter, King has a lot to say about the importance of stories. Identify three key passages on this theme.
- Are good stories always ethical? Why or why not?
- Does King's telling the story of John and Amy Cardinal make a difference—to him or to us? Why does he tell this "private story"?
- Notice that this chapter ends with the same phrasing as all the others in the book: does hearing King's stories make you want to live your life differently in any way?
Afterwards, please comment on two of your peers' responses.
(#3) John and Amy Cardinal had three children: Franklin, Amos, and Sam. Franklin and Amos were their natural children, while Sam was adopted. Sam suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). King wants us to know that it wasn't Sam's fault, and if we wanted to blame someone and discover who the "bad" mother was, it wouldn't make much of a difference. The community helped to raise this troubled child. King and John were good friends. King knew that Sam's behavior was a problem, but when she was around other people and had things to keep her occupied- she was fine. When Sam was a teenager, the behavioral problems had intensified. King told John that teenagers went through difficult periods and eventually come out as reasonable human beings. John was angry much of the time because Sam was the way she was, that Amy insisted on adopting because she wanted a daughter, and because he felt trapped in a world not of his making. King began keeping his distance gradually- stopped calling, made excuses, and didn't return his calls. One day, he called to see how things were going, Amy answered the phone, and he could hear Sam abusing her mother, calling her names and slamming doors. King felt guilty, since John didn't exaggerate the situation, and he was John's friend, but hadn't done anything to help. Then, King had asked if John was around, and Amy said that he wasn't there anymore. Eventually, he ran into John where they used to play golf, and John was happy to see his old friend. John told King that the boys were managing well, and Amy was coping with Sam, and at least she didn't have to deal with his anger anymore on top of things. John said he felt they were better off without him, and leaving was the best thing he could have done. Unlike King had expected, John didn't accuse him of deserting him or not helping and King didn't apologize for not being there when he and Amy could have used his help. But it wasn't help, perhaps, sympathy, comfort, understanding and just being there. But would it have made a difference?
ReplyDeleteKing's telling the story of John and Amy Cardinal makes a difference to him. King doesn't tell this story out loud since it isn't much of a story- no plot, no neat ending, no clever turns of phrase. King always ends up weeping, not for John and Amy, not for Sam's brothers, and not for Sam, but for himself. Additionally, for the world he helped to create- a world in which he allows intelligence and goodwill to be constantly subverted by his pursuit of comfort and pleasure. By knowing this, it's doubtful that given a second chance to make amends for his behavior, he would do anything different. For he found it easier to tell himself the story of his failure as a friend, as a human being, than to have to live the story of making the sustained effort to help.
Your effort here is great, that's for sure, but I think this is more of a summary, using wording directly from the text, than it is a response to the question. I'm sure you have more thoughts on the subject than the two objective sentences that were your own. I'm curious to know what other thoughts you have.
Deletequestion 4
ReplyDeleteIn the book The Truth About Stories by Thomas King he finishes each chapter with we have the story now, “do with it what you will”. He’s giving us a choice with the stories that he has shared with us. We could do nothing with it, we could share it, and we could write a book about it or come up with another good story like it based on it. I think he tells us this so hopefully one day, we could pass on these stories. That even if the Indians either die out, or are “legalized” into society that the stories will remain. Like ruins of a once great people. The stories will keep the life of the Natives Americans still alive.
Looking at the way he phrases each end of the chapters, and thinking of what we could do with these stories that he has given us could help us change our life by sharing some of our own person stories. It has affected my life by teaching me to live your life to the fullest so if I one day tell the story of my life it wouldn’t be so boring. Instead of “my life was kind of boring. Went to school, had friends, found a job and met someone, had kids and lived happier ever after” I don’t know about you but that’s a little boring to me. This book has taught me that you can’t just tell a story, there’s different ways of telling each story. It’s all about the way you tell a story that will make someone either tell it again, or do nothing with it.
I believe King wants to keep the life of the Native Americans still alive, and so he shares these stories. We can do what we want with the stories he has given us.
DeleteRight, we can do whatever we please with these stories.
DeleteHe hopes that we will take his advice and possibly share stories of our own some day with people. Maybe even share some of the stories we read in his book.
DeleteWell said buddy, i agree with this.
DeleteI agree with you.
Deleteyeah Alex i agree with you all the way
DeleteI agree as well. I think that he also thinks that if he shares the stories with his readers that we may pass them on. It could be his main objective so he can keep Native American culture alive through the stories.
DeleteI'm responding to question number 4. In the book The Truth About Stories by Thomas King he always ends each chapter the same way by saying "you know the story now do with it what you will". He's giving us a choice of what to do with the story. He's taught me that there is different ways to tell a story and by this it has changed my life, so when I grow up and tell someone my life story I can add the tone, dialogue and etc. to the story to make it sound less boring.
ReplyDeleteKing does give us a choice to do or tell the story the way we want. I agree Shelly, he has taught me the same thing. In your life story, you can add things and still have the same ending or response.
DeleteI forgot about things like that. We now know that we can add tone and dialogue to everyday life.
Deletei am not good with dialogue and tone, this story helps
DeleteReally good way or wording it Shelly!
DeleteWell said Shelly, i agree with the way you put this.
DeleteIts a nice soothing tone that allows you to make a choice that suits you.
DeleteI never really though about answering this promt in this way.
Delete#4 -
ReplyDeleteKing ends the book the same way he does with any chapter. He says, "don't say in years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now,". King has always wanted to be a writer that could change the world with his work. He tells us the story, and we choose what to do with it.
King's story won't change my life, but it has interested me. People have asked me about summer work I have, and I tell them the stories I have been told from this book. Being able to retell a story is something that is very fun to do. My favorite is the one of Louis Owen, where I can tell people the truth of how Indians were treated and how it lead to the suicide of a man who had life taken from him by the government. All in all, King's stories won't change my life outside of retelling the stories to other people.
Good point. Saying how it may not have effected your life, but it gave you a good story to tell. I agree.
Delete#2
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion all stories are ethical because if they werent ethical how can we learn from there mistakes and accomplishments.
The exxon valdez oil spill is an ethical incident because it showed that even though it devestated miles of Alaska hundreds of people showed up to help the animals out, help the workers clean off rocks and to clean up the water.
Within every story there is a climax or rising action, within that is usually a mistake. the accomplishment would be within the falling action or the conclusion. this is why i think that every story has ethics hidden somewhere
DeleteThat is one way to look at it Matt, but i think that you are staring at a blank wall to hard. Some stores you aren't suppose to read in between the lines. Or else you might go crazy like that dude how read catcher in the rye.
DeleteI agree matt
DeleteI agree all stories have to be ethical
DeleteI don't think that all good stories are ethical. Stories of struggling and awful ethics are good for us. Without them we wouldn't see how crappy people really are and we wouldn't have motivation to be better for ourselves and others around us. Reading a story of someone, for instance, dropping out of high school for some odd reason and struggling afterwards might cause us to be even more motivated to finish school and go to college. All in all, a story doesn't have to be ethical for you to get a good meaning out of it.
ReplyDeleteBut what if i belive that i could survie without that highschool educations and could do much better then the person struggling. Acutaly i agree with you a story with bad ethnics would change someones mind and make them strive to better themself.
DeleteI agree with you 100% Emily!
DeleteI agree, non ethical ones are the ones that make you step back and look at things, and make you question yourself.
DeleteEither way in every story you read or you're told you learn something new or something you've already heard before. From so and so got a hair cut to don't lie or people won't believe you from the boy who cried wolf.
DeleteQuestion number 4
ReplyDeleteI do not think i would want to live my life differently. Everything that we are put through day in and day out is for a reason, whatever that reason is..we may never know. Events are presented to us to tell us a lesson. Yes we may one day look back and question ourselves, "What could i have done differently?" or "How could i have done that better?". Perhaps some events happen so that we can tell stories about them. I would not change anything i have done in my life because through everything, it has taught me a lesson in one way or another. Time is the one thing that cannot be bought traded or stored. This is why we must think before we do things. I personally do not think that anybody should wish they could've done something differently. We all are presented with precious time and what we do with it is up to us. Through the good and the bad times there is a lesson. The lesson must be consumed one way or another.
#4). Each time achapter and a story ended, King reminds us " just don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now". He also tells us " You know the story now do with it what you will". He is giving us an opportunity to choose what we want to do with the story. Whether we want to forget it, retell it, or come up with our own stories from it. They are now ares to make a decision.
ReplyDeleteIt does make me want to live my life differently, however. It makes me want to live my life with no regrets, so that in years to come I can sit down and tell my own stories. From knowledge, experience, and for entertainment. King wants us to feel that just like him, the stories we tell will have a certain dialogue and tone, in order to make an impact on peoples lives. To make them just as interesting as the ones he shared with us.
#4
ReplyDeleteAt the end of each chapter, King says "It's Yours. Do with it what you will." When King says this. He is basically telling us that we could learn more about the story. We could forget the story. Or even make more stories about it. He just wants us to take something out of the stories he has taught us about in this book.
Also, at the end of each chapter, King says "But dont say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story." I really dont think my life has changed much, or will ever change much since I have heard these stories. Yes, they all have morals and life lessons. I guess the second art to this question is more opinion based than some of the others. This is just me, but there may be some people out there that can take huge things from some of these small stories.
All storys have some sort of Ethnic value. From The Goffy Movie that teaches us to love are parents even if they do outrages things to Romeo and Juilet wich teachesus not to be prejudges and not to let old hatred coexsist with the way we treat people.
ReplyDeleteSo all storys have ethnics and does that make them "good." Well this depends on your ethnics if your a racialy angry person you might think that Mineconff if the best bed time story. But if your Ethnics are more on the socialy exsptible side you might think nursery rime "The Little Red Hen" wich teaches us not be lazy and to help make bread. Any way to put it simple it is an opion weather or not a good story is ethnical.
i like the connection to the goofy movie
DeleteNow lets be reasonable here... There is no possible way somebody could read all of Mein Kampf before going to bed. I mean that book is no joke 720 pages along and was published along 2 whole volumes. The new testament of the bible wasn't even that long (300 pages). So were talking weeks here not nights. You would have to be really committed to hating the Jews if you were to read Mein Kampf on a regular basis as a bed time story.
DeleteHearing the stories King has told me will not change my life but they have interested me. I had never thought of the Earth being on a turtle back or a whole universe for that matter. Also the story about Sam is a bit sad it will not change the way I live my life. And yes all of his stories have morals but none will ever greatly affect me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, they may not change me, but they make me more aware.
DeleteNotice that this chapter ends with the same phrasing as all the others in the book: does hearing King's stories make you want to live your life differently in any way?
ReplyDeleteI want to thank Mr. King for writing his book. I want to say a book change my life but last time I did that I had to go to a catholic school. The book was good I tried to analyze different books and stores. knowing if a story is worth my time or if i can help someone just by listening. I might possible be a saving story.
For long term use the book really didn't do much. I will forget how well word this book was, or I might remember the time and efforts that were spent on this book. Clasping hope to be a better writer and reader. I will think twice about any stories I hear. Yet I am only and a penguin therefore i can not understand any of this.
mike you are a wonderful penguin. I think the book had a lot of meanings that could affect certain aspects of different peoples life.
Deletegood job mike
Delete(#2) no a good story could come from how it relates you as a person may it be a personality or your favorite video games or even book genre. King said in the book that stories are all we are. his meaning is that things you have done could be related to a story. a story you read could have changed your look on life,or even gave you some reassurance to life. the future events are our story yet to be told. our fantasy and our reality are in stories by a feeling or event that you shared with it.
ReplyDelete#2
ReplyDeleteI believe all stories are ethical. From every story you can learn something. Most children stories have straight forward messages that tell you what you should do. In tragic stories the message is still there just a little harder to find some times.
So every story is ethical be it good or bad. We might not care about the message depending on the story. Take the oil spill people had the ethics to help to try and clean up. Then when the business man embezzled money not a lot of people cared. So as King said we have ethics it’s just if we decide to use them.
I may be over analyzing this, but I think most children's stories aren't quite so straight forward. They meant something different to you when you were young than they would now. I'm also left to wonder what your definition of ethical is. An ethic is defined as "a set of moral principles, esp. ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct". Could a story not be moral relating to any of the aforementioned? Your thoughts are great, this is just something more to think about.
Delete#4
ReplyDeletePersonaly, hearing Kings stories dosn't effect the way i want to live my life very much. His stories made me stop and think about things(Government, peoples actions, our country as a whole), But they also made me question his point of view. He complained a lot about the problems with our country, but thats it. He never really talked about the good or what he's doing to fix things.
I definatly have a new appreciation for many things he touched on in this book, but not in a way to effect the way i want to live my life. I think that "My life plan" did not change drasticly based upon what he spoke about in this book.
I believe most of the things that happened in this book happened long ago before king could even have a chance o fix them.I believe so at least I could be wrong
DeleteThe Stories haven’t changed how I am going to live my life. I believe I am living my life the right way. It has opened my eyes to the injustice that happens in the world. There were many things I didn’t know before all of the stories he told. I didn’t know Indians were discriminated against the way they were, or the story of charm. There is a lot about native culture I have no idea about and I have an interest to look into it.
ReplyDeleteKing has also taught me how to tell a good story. There are many components to a good story like tone, voice, pace, knowing how to draw things out. He does all of this perfectly within the book and I’ve learned from it and I will try to apply it to my story telling. King has truly taught me the truth about stories.
I'm responding to the fourth question. I did notice that King ends every chapter of the book the same. Personally it hasnt changed/live my life differently in anyway. I dont think i thought of the way he ended it enough to consider changing my life because it.
ReplyDeleteAlso I dont think most of these stories have enough meaning and importance at this point in America and in the world. For example the indian land getting tooken away, it been tooken for a long time I dont think there is a reasonable way to pursuade anyone into giving these indians there land back. Its pointless to complain about because clearly to me it seems like they are getting no where with it. I'm also not saying that the indians getting their land stolen from them was right. All I'm saying is that it seems like a lost cause and there are more important things to write about and complain about.
Right on Brother!
Delete#2
ReplyDeleteI don't believe all stories are ethical at all. Ethics are defined as "a set of moral principles, esp. ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct" also concerning what is and what is not acceptable for one to do personally.
A story can be told about anything, by anyone, at any time. Each person has his or her own ethical values, so what is ethical for one person may not be for another. I'm sure you have heard a story that resulted with a negative end, or a twist that was in no way "affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct". We hear stories about abuse, we hear stories about harassment, we hear stories which make us feel guilty. Some stories we hear make us, as a listener, feel ashamed of our feelings or beliefs. As story tellers, we sometimes tell stories that we realize are politically incorrect or detrimental to someone else's feelings and/or beliefs. The story itself can be unethical, or the story teller. Either way, a story doesn't have to be ethical, a story doesn't have to be anything.
The stories we remember, however, are usually those that make an impact or make us feel good. Typically, those are the ethical stories, stories that appeal to our morals and make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. We may not want to admit it to ourselves, but that may be a flaw in our morals itself.
I am replying to the last promt:"Notice that this chapter ends with the same phrasing as all the others in the book: Does hearing King's stories make you want to live your life differently in any way?" Every chapter in the ends with something like "you know the story now do with it what you will" and I believe that it is there so we can decide to either forget the story or tell it again or just think about it once more. Even if we do tell it again or think about it might have be a little different. The same way that the story about the earth on turtles backs changes slightly each time we see it in the book.
ReplyDeleteHearing King's stories doesn't necessarily make me want to live my life differently. It does make me rethink a lot of things. They also make me see things from different perspectives.
Every chapter King ends it with the same phrase. When I finish reading the stories, some times I do think about maybe making some changes to the way I live. Are they massive changes? No not really. Just little changes that could make impressions on other people I meet. So that maybe, just maybe, they could make better choices as well.
ReplyDeleteI think thats a great idea and is inspiring the way you put it. I hope you live up to this and hopefully people will make better choices.
DeleteKing ends the books chapters the same way for every chapter. i dont really think about living my life different because life is not to bad right now. Maybe in the future ill have to change a little but until then i dont thing the stories are going to change my life.
ReplyDelete#4)
ReplyDeleteKing ends the chapters all the same to show a point. He tells us that in years to come, don't say we would live differently if we never heard the story,because now we have.
He tells us these stories to tell us more about we already know, or educate us on things we might have never heard.
King impacted me with some of the stories just from hearing stories from his point of view. Everyone knows racism exists, along with sexism, etc. But hearing real life stories of people on the short end of the stick,can really put it into perspective for someone unfamiliar with just how bad It can be. We are also told about how people can judge so fast. The whole struggle in this was how to look like an "authentic" Indian. And it was so wrong for people to assume that because someone looks a certain way or not, that makes them what or what not they are.
So in the end yes Kings stories did make me think differently. They really opened up some details I had never heard before.
King ends with this because he wants to show that every story makes a difference it might not be a big difference but there is always one. This story made a difference with me because until reading this story i didn't realize how big of a problem racism was. I new it was bad but not until this story did i really understand how many people were judged and mistaken. Once you hear a story that tells yous about how someone else has had to live compared to you a lot changes in how you look at tings and see them now. King impacted me by hearing what he went through and what others went through in hard times that we cant always compare to but can understand and listen.
ReplyDeleteGood point! I always knew that racism was a huge problem, but this put it in a whole new perspective.
Delete#2. Are good stories always ethical?
ReplyDeleteIt really depends what kind of story you are reading, where it takes place and when. Stories are not always moral, happy or any of that sort. They can be cruel, unmerciful and sad. There are all different kinds of stories, you can make them about anything. Who says you have to make them a certain way? If all stories were ethical, no one would learn anything from them, no one would question them. Sometimes an unethical story can make a great lesson, but that's not always the case.
Everyone has different perceptions of what is "right amd wrong" and with that being said, their are many different types of stories. Everyone is different and everyone has different opinions. Seeing how there are so many different types of stories, telling about loss, gain, tragedy and other things, most stories are told to keep people interested. And not all interesting stories are moral and righteous. It really depends on who you ask, but to me. The ones that aren't ethical, have the best lessons and keep me wanting to keep reading.
(#4) King's stories don't make me want to change my life in any way because people write books/journals all the time that are true about their lives and other things.I haven't changed my life or tried to reading those books. I also don't think that some of his stories are important to read about.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 3
ReplyDeleteKings story makes a difference to the people because it show people live a difficult life after making a decision to help another person. Jon and amy made a decision to adopt a child with a disability. When she was in her mother womb her mother drank alcohol during the 9 months. This child was always angry against Jon and Amy. This caused them to divorce because Jon was always angry when the child was angry. I think king told this private story because it shows that with good decision you make in your life could be worse ideas in the future. You just got to take it a step at a time.
#4
ReplyDeleteHearing Kings stories don't want to make me want to live my life differently. One reason, times are different and people get treated a lot differently now then they did back then. It does help me take in more consideration for people that had to deal with racism, because that's something that will never go away. So it is important for us to learn about it.
#4
ReplyDeleteReadings Kings stories haven't made me want to change the way I live. Not because his story didn't convince me that things need changing, but simply because reforming my life would require allot of effort on my part. And I don't know about you, but I'm not just going to drop my weapons and stop watching Dora the Explorer, just because some book tells me that discrimination is still alive and well In America. It's America. Everybody is always a little racist potato it's nothing new.
Does King's telling the story of John and Amy Cardinal make a difference—to him or to us? Why does he tell this "private story"?
ReplyDeleteThis story of the Cardinals makes a difference to everyone. The story has a very strong messasge and again I think King is trying to show us what emotions can come from a story and how it can change peoples lives. When Amy says on the phone that John wasnt there anymore I took it as he packed up and left his family, I think when King heard this he was heart broken assuming he made a connection between John and his father. So, King throughout the book is trying to show us how stories can change our lives and make us who we are. I made a connection between his life and writing with John Cardinals leaving of his family. I assume John grew up with both of his parents, while King never knew his dad. So John would be more likely to leave his family because he doesnt know how much it hurts, but King on the other hand knows what it feels like to grow up without a father, hence he would be less likely to leave a family of his own.
Afterwords Q2: No not all good stories are ethical. Some stories do not have any ethics at all and that could be because it's your own personal story. Just like King's story, it was a good story but did not have any ethics to it.
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