Stories: Framework for Our Lives

“In the end, we all become stories.” –Margaret Atwood

STORIES AS A DOOR

For the most part, I feel lucky to be exposed to stories and the love of reading from a very young age. I have my mom to thank. Even though English is her third language and she is dyslexic, she would read to us fairy tales and other children’s books persevering through her reading inadequacy.

I can see now how my parents would slowly influence my fondness for books. They would say “no” to that new toy but my siblings and I could always buy 1 book of our choice whenever we were at a bookstore. I remember on my kindergarten graduation my parents gave me a pink book titled “The Frog Princess, and Other Russian Fairy Tales.” It was my favorite book back then. I remember the pretty pictures and being engrossed in the story. I was familiar with stories where the prince was a frog. But in the Russian story why was the princess the frog?

It fairy tales there is always an element of surprise and role reversals. The beggar becomes an enchantress, the tortoise overtakes the hare, the ugly duckling becomes a beautiful swan. And because of this I was often wondering what will happen next? What will the old hag do? What is behind the door? It was mostly curiosity and wanting to be entertained on my part why I liked reading so much.

Opening a book as child felt like opening a door and peering into some other world but not fully entering.

A PERIOD OF FORGETTING

As I grew older I started to realize that stories have meanings through Aesop’s Fables and the Book of Virtues which had a clear cut message shared after each story. But the thing with those short stories once you’ve read them they become too familiar and uninteresting.

Then during my teenage years I outgrew these type of stories. Fairy tales felt juvenile to me.

A DOOR, A KNOCK

However, in my 20s at a bookstore I found a single copy of the book Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. The book made me think of a more mature and expanded version of a fairy tale. It follows an unassuming protagonist named Richard, who helps a bleeding young girl, named Door. Door goes missing and in his search he uncovers worlds below which changed him. Looking back, I don’t think it’s an accident that the author named one of his main characters as Door.

A RETURN TO STORY. FINDING DOORS TO UNLOCK

Incidentally I came across a book in my late 20s called “Women Who Run with the Wolves”. That book that came to me at a time I needed a change in perspective. It took me a long while to digest it in my hypothetical mental muriatic acid.

The writer is a Jungian psychologist who uses world myths and stories to help illustrate and recall lessons. She then breaks it down through analysis so we can better understand what is good for our psyche. In one part she quotes, “Questions are the keys that cause the secret doors to the Psyche to swing open.”

In life, there are things that happen to us and make us wonder why. We sometimes look for answers that have no clear cut reference to science or philosophy. I started to realize that stories can be answers to life that do not make sense. It is said that logic and reason are lenses in which we see the world but stories can be the shaded tints that can add vibrancy or on the other hand, tame color.

The writer shares how stories can serve as viewpoints through which existing myths and stories come from. We can overlap imagination with reason and derive something of implication that can be applied to what we are experiencing.

In the book, one of the stories she dissects is an old Russian Fairy tale called “Vasilisa.”

The story starts out like most fairy tales do with a young girl, innocent and pure of heart whose sick and pale mother is on her deathbed. The good mother calls her young daughter by her bedside and gives her a tiny doll and says, “Should you lose your way or be in need of help, ask this doll. Feed this doll and do not tell anyone about her. This is a mother’s blessing to you.” The mother then passes away and with time the father remarries a younger woman with two daughters. Although the new mother and the daughters always smile and talk in polite tones, there was something rodent-like behind them that the father failed to notice.

When the father is away, the mother and her two daughters would torment her and order her to do all their biddings. One day they plotted to send Vasilisa away. They conspired to put out their home fire so they could instruct Vasilisa go into the forest to fetch the fire for the hearth from Baba Yaga - an old knowing witch which could kill and eat her. The new mother and her daughters clapped and squealed no different from a beast that thrive in the dark.

Vasilisa then goes off into the dark woods to do her bidding. Not knowing which way to go, Vasilisa consults the doll on which way to go. The doll quietly tells her which direction she must take and eventually she arrives at Baba Yaga’s house standing on top of giant chicken feet. In her fence, there are skulls spiked on top with fire glowing in them. Vasilisa begs the Baba Yaga for fire but first she must complete a series of tasks or else the Baba Yaga will devour her.

There a series of tasks that Vaslilisa must face which are impossible. One task was to separate fresh corn from mildewed corn, poppy seed and dirt from a large mound. Vasilisa seems overwhelmed at first because she is not sure if she can finish with her limited time. Finally, with the help of the doll Vasilisa is able to overcome these tasks, returns home with the blessed fire for the hearth.

The story may be simple but is symbolic with real world implications.

The story could be about intuition and initiation of going to the unknown. We must remember that characters of a story represent all parts of ourselves. We are the central character- Vasilisa. But around us are our the good/bad mother, the unaware father, the cruel new family members, the doll and our own Baba Yagas.

Sometimes we wonder if fairy tales intentionally put morbid elements in them. Why do mothers have to die, why do most Disney princesses do not have mothers? In the story of Vasilisa, the sick mother represents the good and protective mother which must go in order for Vasilisa to mature herself. It is part of ourselves where we must let go of our dependence and replace it with intuition - the doll. The cruel stepsiblings represent our shadow selves that we have not yet come to grips. Baba Yaga represents our subconscious and life force that we cannot fully comprehend. The woods are the obstacles and uncertainties we have to overcome in order to come out as a better person.

In one of the tasks, Vasilisa is ordered to separate all the elements in the fresh corn - from mildewed corn, poppy seed, and dirt. From a symbolic perspective these elements represent all remnants of ancient apothecary which hold medicinal properties used as balms and salves. As representations, they are medications for the mind - some for nourishment, while some cause languish or in contrast, stimulation. Baba Yaga asks Vasilisa to separate these things and determine what is good and useful; to know the difference between something bad disguised as good or vice-versa. And the doll is symbolic of the intuition which helps her. And the fire she obtains through her struggle represents her clarity.

That is one example of how stories can be dissected and bring meaning to our lives.

In another part of the book she says, “The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”

You can look at life experiences in a similar way. A door where we cross the threshold to the unknown and opens up new parts of ourselves or phases in our lives.

This made me realize how powerful stories can be and why fairy tales stand the test of time. At first glance these stories are often too simplistic while puzzling. It is because they often contain something vital - a lesson, example or a realization that are wrapped through children’s literature and distilled down to their simplest forms to facilitate the passing of the story from one generation to the next.

This book made me see the deeper meaning of fairy tales and how one can return to them in adulthood. That there is something numinous locked inside them. Something you can bring back and shape how we see life.

Aside from forming our personal narratives, we can also frame different aspects of our lives and what we do differently. We can bring storytelling to how we relate with others. Of course, those characters in books are often archetypes and caricatures but they are often somebody we can identify with at different stages in our life. Because of stories, we can easily empathize with others because we have experienced them through a character’s perspective.

We frame our own stories or in my case, my field of graphic designs and illustrations into my personal journeys. What are we trying to tell? What do we need to overcome? What is the beginning, middle, and end? Stories and illustrations create an impact because it is framed with significance. It also helps people remember.

HERO’S JOURNEY. CROSSING OF DOORWAYS.

Carl Jung, one of the fathers of modern psychology wrote in his book, Symbols of Transformation, “It struck me what it means to live with a myth and without one. Myth is “what is believed always, everywhere, by everybody.” Hence, the man who thinks he can live without myth, or outside it is an exception.”

Similarly, a professor and author named Joseph Campbell who is famous for comparative mythology created something called Hero’s Journey. It was his all-encompassing metaphor for passage of inner and outer transformation that many heroes share across cultures. He noticed that in different literatures, movies and pop-culture protagonists seem to share a similar pattern. Here’s an intertwined example.

A character will start out with their present selves in a familiar zone. Something calls them to adventure, sometimes through the help of a mentor. Think of Bilbo Baggins, an unaware hobbit content in his comfort zone and Gandalf appears. No matter how much they want to stay, they will be pushed to the next stage where they will have to cross the threshold to unfamiliar territory. While in another narrative Alice in Wonderland falls inside the rabbit hole. Since the character is in an unknown land, they will face challenges, just like Katniss in The Hunger Games, fighting in the arena. Then the character will have to face death, maybe some part of themselves or someone they care about much like in the Disney Hercules where he followed Megara to the underworld. This death or self-sacrifice will lead to rebirth and with it comes transformation with revelation. It is the moment where Hercules finally becomes worthy of being the son of Zeus. With the new transformation, our Hero will then have a eureka moment or atonement, or finally defeat his demons, much like Luke defeats Darth Vader (his father) in Star Wars. The Hero or Heroine gets a gift, either in a form that is tangible or a new knowledge, renewed wisdom or skill. An example of would be Mulan where she obtains the sword of Genghis Khan and her sense of self-worth. The Hero returns home changed, like when Dorothy goes back to her home in Kansas.

You can take any of the examples above - The Hobbit, The Hunger Games, Disney animation, (or even Harry Potter) and realize that each character will follow a similar trajectory with different settings and characters.

These phases from the Hero’s Journey can feel like similar themes in our lives. Sometimes it happens when we voluntarily open new chapters in our lives. At other time it can feel like a trap door opening; or even repeated cycles of opening doors.

Of course this is simplifying. Each one’s story is a personal experience with all its complications and nuances. And not everyone follows this path of the Hero’s Journey. But then again, it is a track that is useful to illustrate or interpret a personal narrative especially when we wonder what could happen next.

With stories, truth can be packaged in magic and mystery. Such are stories when the old hag reveals herself as a powerful enchantress cursing the beast or a story of entering a dark cave where we have to slay our dragons to get the gold. We can then ask the questions at any point in our lives: Is this my call to adventure? Will I transform or stay dead? What lesson must we learn? What dark things do we have to overcome in order to get our figurative gold?

After all it is said that myths are something that never happened but is always happening.

#stories #life #personalnarrative #myth