I’m a storyteller. I’ll work to make you believe me. Throw in some real stuff, change a few details, add the certainty of outrage. I know the use of fiction in a world of hard truth, the way fiction can be a harder piece of truth. The story of what happened, or what did not happen but should have—that story can become a curtain drawn shut, a piece of insulation, a disguise, a razor, a tool that changes every time it is used and sometimes becomes something other than we intended.
The story becomes the thing needed. (3)
What do you think Allison means in this passage? How would you describe her purpose in telling her story? What is she trying to persuade us, her readers, to believe? What does she want to convince us about storytelling? About her family? About herself? (Or about any other issue you think the text addresses?)
Write a paragraph in response to these questions and post them here as a comment.
Allison is explaining to the reader that she will strive to have you believe her, to feed off of what she says. Allison wants people to listen and she says that she is willing to bend the truth to make the story more engaging for readers or listeners. It's not as if she is going to lie and change her story completely. She is just allowing more room for more interest in her story.
ReplyDeleteHer purpose in telling her story? To be honest, I still don't understand her story. Maybe she wants us, the readers, to believe what she says no matter how ludicrous she may sound and in order for us to believe her, she has to engage us in what she says. She can do this by bending the truth, emphasizing a certain point by adding more (possibly false) details to her story, or making it up completely.
I think what Allison meant by this passage is that people’s perspective can change a story, and that the line between fiction and facts can get blurry. What may seem true to one person may be complete fabrication to another. Any event can affect people differently too, depending on how much it impacts them. People can also remember certain details more than others to how they want to present the story. So all in all, Allison is saying that this is her side of the story, it has the truths in her life but also her imagination.
ReplyDeleteIn this passage Dorothy Allison is trying to make us believe what she is saying despite the fact of it being true or not. She tries to persuade the reader that the story is what we need, even if it is hard to handle and something that we do not want to face. Although her stories may be fabricated and the events might be changed to add to the effect of the story, it is clear that Allison needed to tell her story to help overcome the events of her life. The story being a “tool that changes every time it is used” becomes a way for her to let out her anger and feelings. I believe that she uses the story to cope with her mother’s death, her abuse as a child, and the fact that the women in her family were merely seen as old, ugly, workhorses who were never treated as they should have been.
ReplyDeleteWriting a story we want to see it, not the way the events actually unfolded can be a way for the narrator to cope with their harsh reality. The narrator is trying to convince themselves that certain events did not happen which enables the narrator to hide their feelings until they replace the old feelings or memories with the new, fictitious story.
ReplyDeleteDorothy Allison, in the passage, provides a telling appeal for not just persuasive writing, but for writing as a tool of expression, but also makes the case that the writer must not plainly express phrases of the real story, but rather exaggerate - as fiction can often be used as an even more telling picture than the truth itself. Allison does not, however, champion the complete fabrication of a story, but rather insists that the writer must throw in a few additions in order to add to the appeal of the story, whatever its message may be - an excellent defense for the use of literature in the high school classroom. Why is it that teachers use novels such as 1984, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and many others? Is it merely to pass the time, or are there inherent truths in literature - arguably more so than a mere magazine article or blog post?
ReplyDeleteWhat Allison wants to tell us is that the fiction is not only created by human’s imagination, but also by the real truth. The story she plans to tell us is persuasive. She intends to use her fiction to express what she thinks as well as what she prefers. She tries to give us a real feeling and visual with using the story. Her purpose is to arouse our consideration for the opinions she tries to express.
ReplyDeleteI believe Dorothy Allison is trying to explain that even though the story may seem outragous or fiction there is some truth to every story. The purpose of this passage is because Allison is tyring to convice her readers and herself of what she is saying in her story. Even though some parts may be false, she is trying to draw the readers by trying to persuade that things can happen to anyone as it happened to Allison. She just wants people to think differently and to get her story out.
ReplyDeleteDorothy Allison's purpose is not only to tell a story or give us information but it is to relate her perspective to us. Emotion is what she wants to deliver to stories and their listeners but it is also a means to express her feelings in a hidden manner while still flooding the reader with extreme emotions. If in order to protect herself or help others she must add fiction, then that she will do.
ReplyDeleteThe goal is not to believe the story but the moral because a story is not a stand alone piece merely made of characters and plot. It is a fictitious depiction of reality but if you believe certain functions of the story then you can believe greater ideas about human nature.
Allison is introducing how she will tell the story and is explaining that though the reader may not necessarily believe her, a reaction she has commonly experienced, she hopes she can persuade the reader that the story is true. Her purpose for telling the story is to be thought provoking and to cause the reader to relate with the story. Her goal with telling this story is not just to give her a forum to tell her story but also to give her family members a voice because they could not overcome the poor hand that they had been dealt in life. She is also adamant that this is why she fought so hard to break out of her situation.
ReplyDeleteThe author is trying to tell us that the importance of the story is not whether it is true or false but what we can learn from it. I think the author is trying to persuade us to believe in the importance of telling stories as well as listening to them. The author states that the story can become a tool, whether it is true or not. Maybe it is simply a tool to express emotion and if it (the story) is dramatized a little, it only does so to show the reader the intensity of her her feelings and help them feel the author feels about issues (such as rape). For her, storytelling is a way to give voice to both herself and to others. For example, the story of her being raped. By telling this story she is able to let down her guard and release the emotions of what happened to her and how it changed her but also show how much it hurt her that no one listened. The author also talks about how she holds on to the stories of other women, for example those of Lucy her alcoholic friend. I think by allowing others to share their story with her, she takes away some of the burden they carry. She provides and outlet for them in the same way that writing her stories is an outlet for her to express herself.
ReplyDeleteWhat Alison means with this passage is that she is going to change details in her story so that an outsider will see the story from her perspective. She wants us to feel what she was feeling the time the story took place, so she has to over exaggerate some things or change parts of the story to get what she wants the reader to feel across. Her purpose in telling the story is not just to make us believe her. It is not about us. She has a need to be believed, for someone to listen to her story and know that she isn’t making it up. Alison needs someone to believe that bads things have happened to her, just for her own sanity. This is what she is trying to persuade the readers to believe. Her story. In relation to her story telling, she wants us to feel the pain in her words in order to understand what she has been going through her entire life. Her family is not what the ideal family looks like. They don’t believe her when she says things. She doesn’t have a strong support system around her, and she doesn’t really know where she belongs in the world. She does not want for herself what she sees in all the women around her, but she doesn’t know how she can change her future.
ReplyDeleteStorytelling is life interpreted how the author views it. It allows for fabrication to engage the reader and keep them interested in the writing. It is a way of incorporating life and fiction to create a scene that one wants. It can serve many uses as an outlet for people and as a way to cope with life and its troubles by putting them to rest in a way that they can hide them.
ReplyDeleteStorytelling allows bigger issues that people may not be comfortable with to be exposed and allow people to see the reality of the situation.
In this passage, I think Allison is trying to get the reader to understand that this is the story of her life in the way she wants to tell it. Her purpose in telling her story is to get the reader to understand that this is her story, and that the fiction pieces she may through in there are on purpose because it is also the truth to her story. She is trying to persuade the reader to believe her story. Forewarning the reader that some parts may be changed a little in her story, Allison still wants the reader to believe the story because it is her story. She needs the readers to believe her story. Allison wants to convince the readers that storytelling is based on truth and fiction, but fiction can also be a harder truth. She also wants to convince us that she will make us believe her story. She wants us to believe that her storytelling is based on her family. Allison wants to convince us that she needs the readers to believe her stories for herself.
ReplyDeleteIn this passage Allison explains the importance of fiction and literature and how fiction cannot always be distinguished from the truth. The power that storytelling has on altering reality is also touched upon. Storytelling is so powerful because it can show what perhaps should have been. The passage sets the tone for the rest of the narrative by daring the reader to define what reality is and what mere storytelling is. Allison’s purpose in telling her part is to shock people into wondering what is reality or fiction.
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