Enstoried | Why We Love Narrative

Sometimes reality is boring.

Life can feel mundane, repetitive, and rather unromantic at times. 

Story is humanity's response to this pervasive monotony.

Narrative has been enjoyed by many a child at times when their real life is less interesting, or perhaps less appealing, than those of the characters within a book. There is nothing more captivating to a young person than a growing tension followed by a dramatic climax and then a satisfying and rewarding conclusion. And thus children of all demographics are daily drawn to brave and illustrious heroes, who, against all odds, conquer the bad guys and save the day.

 What makes a story alluring, however, is not just that good wins in the end, but rather that it did not always seem that it would. A truly great story will make the reader question, beyond their good reason, whether or not good will ultimately prevail in the battle against chaos. It may seem from the perspective of the cast trapped in the linear progression of the story that their cause is hopeless, or their failure imminent. But when a child finishes the story and looks back, it seems clear that it was always meant to conclude in victory, almost as if the author wrote the whole story with the ending in mind.

 Unfortunately, there comes a time when the tedium of responsibility and the many implications of the dreaded word “maturing” must take priority over fantasy. A child may grow up and realize that life does not manifest itself in the form of a gripping fantasy novel, but rather trudges along in a manner perhaps more reminiscent of a Physics textbook, And perhaps a Physics textbook is even still too generous, because life apparently stumbles forward with none of the numbered chapters or practice problems to help with comprehension. A young adult might forget about stories and begin to slip into a mortal shuffle where they do what they must to make ends meet and to convince themselves that they are enough while simultaneously comparing themselves to others. A struggle that, uninterrupted, will never be resolved.

Why is it that the heroes of the stories, who often make mistakes, and seem to somehow have even less control over their lives than the average individual in the real world, end up fulfilling their purpose and riding off into the sunset?  A person might think it unfair that they don't get the same happy ending as Frodo Baggins, or Eustace Scrubb, or Perseus, or even Elizabeth Bennet if your into that kind of thing, despite the fact that none of them seemed to have had any idea what they were doing. You might glance at the world around you and see what appears to be an entirely random series of events, all accidental and yet somehow all stacked against your favor. 

But then you decide to read one more book. Somewhere within your schedule that you might describe as busy, but a more sage individual might call distracted, you manage to find the time to dive headfirst into one more narrative.

 This book is different, though.

This book isn't just a story, it’s the story. 

This story is the tale of all existence, of life itself. It starts at the beginning and promises eternity. The conflict contained in this book is the true conflict, the one that all of the other books were trying to emulate, and the characters feel genuine and real, because they are. 

The best part of this book, however, is that you’re in it. 

In reading this book you begin to understand that the Divine Author is orchestrating your life with his ending in mind, and because you cannot read another person’s whole story any more than you can read your own, you feel freed from the clutches of your own insecurity.

You see plainly, now, that you are actually in a similar position to your favorite characters, unsure of why things are happening the way that they are, and occasionally doubting that they will end in your favor. The difference is that unlike your heroes, you don't just hope it will end well, you know it will.