Week 6 Response

Response to mccrayk’s Posting for week 6 readings:

In chapter 10 of the text, Hauser discusses the argument of psychologist Jerome Burner who says that are lives are made up of stories that shape who we are as people. Hauser states, “Bruner makes the point that these culturally influenced cognitive linguistic processes that shape the telling of our life story also condition the way we perceptually experience, remember, organize, and ascribe purpose to the events of a life,” (188). As I was reading and thinking about this, I realized that it is indeed true. The stories that I find to be important about my life, and that stick out beyond all the rest, are truly the ones that shape who I am as a person, and come up most in conversation. Here is my concern though, because these stories and events that have happened in the past shape our lives in such a way, does this keep us from experiencing certain things that may be important in the future? If Burner’s argument is correct, we are always wearing blinders to the things we deem non important, when later in life, those could be the stories and experiences that could shape who we want to be then. Do you believe that with Burner’s argument, we could actually be hurting ourselves by paying attention to stories and events that we think are the more important for us to remember?

 

         I agree that our lives are made up of stories that help shape who we are as people; but our perceptions about who we are and the experiences that have shaped who we are can be viewed differently throughout different points in our lives. This allows for the possibility of us to look at the same situation differently depending on our situation, audience and etc. By doing this we can change our own view of what we previously understood as our own vision of who we constructed ourselves to be based on previous stories. In other words, we can see how we have changed and how our own life narratives have shaped our life but we can change how they continue to shape our life. We don’t have to be constrained by understanding specific stories in one light because our understanding evolves as we do. We also have to ability to determine if those choices we made in understanding and shaping ourselves based on personal narratives have had a positive or negative effect on who we have become. In short, I do think that if we don’t allow for an open mind and competency in viewing certain narrative stories about ourselves as open to being interpreted differently, we limit how we can experience certain events that may be important to us in the future.

            Personally, I have an understanding of how certain stories have shaped my life but I also try to keep an open mind about those personal narratives in order to try and be competent. I can usually see how a specific story or life narrative may be negatively or positively affecting areas of my life. However, sometimes this connection isn’t made until after the situation occurs. It also depends on the situation and the audience. We have the ability to choose which stories we tell and I always try to tell personal narratives that relate to the person or audience that I’m involved with at the time. This means that while certain stories may have a tendency to come up I try not to favor one over another even if I feel that it shapes my life more. The reason for this because my personal narrative doesn’t matter, what matters in that situation is building a common bond with the other person and that might require adopting other stories or narratives that can be identified with by the other person.

This is why I believe personal narratives can affect your ability to define your own life only if you let them. After all, the experiences you have had in your life are all in your mind. You have the ability to choose and designate which ones are defining moments and which one’s are not. In the end that choice is up to you but you still have the ability to choose. That makes you liable for not being competent or hurting yourself by paying attention to only specific stories that may not be relatable to another audience even if they seem more important to remember.