Plot: an Oratory

Hi. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a teenager. Ands I’m the kind of person that places a little too much on stereotypes and a little too much on what other people think and maybe not enough on my grades. But that’s not what this Oratory is about, that’s what everyone else’s about. Anyways, I, being an ignoramus teenager, got in a fight with my parents. Everyone else is doing it, you know. It’s such a reliable cliche’. I stormed into my room, I slammed the door, I dented my globe, and, in my rage, I broke my glasses. I went blind. After resolving with my parents, I had to get the spare pair, which I hated. I liked my old glasses, I liked how they were covered with stains, I liked how they fell off my face when I moved too fast or looked down. This spare pair over focused everything, it made things seem way too concave, and and it made me feel just uncomfortable.

The title of this speech is one word: Plot.

There are two ways we humans learn. The first is experience. Don’t touch the fire, it burns, don’t jump on unstable surfaces, and don’t be a jerk to your friends or you won’t have any. The major flaw with this line of reasoning is that if everybody learned by experience we’d all be dead. So the second way to learn is through other people’s experiences, or in other words, through storytelling. We one of the few races of animals that do this. Terry Pratchett puts it this way: “Humans need fantasy to be human, to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape. You have to start learning to believe the little lies, so we can believe the big ones like Justice or Mercy, Duty, that sort of thing.” Through storytelling, we teach ourselves the code to life. We tell ourselves that there are heights to reach, there is a sky to look up to, and each of us has a potential. And in the end, if there’s one thing we can learn from ourselves, it’s Hope.

Act One:

“In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth.”
Genesis 1:1

Every fictional universe has basic, axiomatic elements without which the story could not even begin to happen. For Harry Potter to defeat Voldemort, we have to assume Magic is possible. For Frodo to destroy the One Ring, we have to assume that the fire will destroy it. For Pokemon to work, we have to have faith that we really CAN catch them all. But we also have to give in to a semblance of destiny - whether we realize it or not. Harry Potter WILL defeat Voldemort, otherwise the universe just isn’t working right.

This is the theory of narrative causality. If you didn’t catch the title of my essay, it’s one word - Plot. Causality is why the plot moves the way it does. It’s why the events of the story are shaped the way they are. And yet.. in the words of Tom King, novelist, “The truth about stories is that’s all we are.” So how does Narratology work in our lives? The beautiful thing about life is that we live from moment to moment. There is always a place to go, a job to fulfill. The lesson we should take from Narrative Causality is that good always wins in the end. Like, certain Christians know that God will triumph over Satan in the last days, that the faithful saints are always, always guaranteed a place in heaven. People need happy endings or there just isn’t a point. And if there is no point, there is no existence. If there’s one thing you learn from reading fiction, it’s that everything resolves and good always wins in the end.

Act Two:

“Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom in thy words”
Proverbs 23:9

Characters. Characters are the window into the story, the anchor to the plot. As defined as the plot is in a book, it still always begins with “Now what would THIS kind of person do in THIS situation?”. Now, why do our heroes always seem to be an “ordinary high school student” or “small town hero”? You’ve probably heard this line before, but we need something we can relate to. In fact, to a writer the best part about a person in a book is their flaws. If someone in a book is starts the story being absolutely perfect, they are not the main character. They have to begin where you and I begin, so that we can see how to grow. Without a flaw, or a way to improve, there is no story. The exception is the Bible, and well, that’s the point, isn’t it? The idea is, We need a real person in our stories, or it isn’t real. But if everybody is flawed, what is the difference between the “good guys” and the “bad guys”? I think the answer is that a good person is someone who wants to get better.

Case study: Aesop’s Fables. Every single one of them involves a character with a flaw, a flaw to challenge, a flaw to overcome. The animals in the story are personifications of how humans think - the clever fox, the proud lion, the gullible chickens. And the reason Aesop is one of my favorite storytellers is that he not only entertains, but effectively and shamelessly enlightens us. The fables have become solid proof of the value of virtues like patience, or honor. And so, the hero is someone who always strives for his redemption. A hero is someone who realizes the best end to the means is the honest way. Because characters in stories may be fictional, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. They are us. This is the key to having a good attitude. Think about it. In fiction when we paint our selves, we see them succeed. All throughout history, people have gone from the lowest of the low to the highest of glory by the principle of resolve. Do the heroes in a story back down? No! Do they go through trials? Yes. And if there’s one thing that we learn from reading fiction, it’s that every one of us can achieve something.

Act Three:

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”
Psalm 119:105

Throughout the speech, I’ve been giving biblical quotes. I don’t really care what religion you are. But the Bible is one of the most influential pieces of literature - arguably the most - in the history of mankind. The scriptures we treat as holy are in fact some of the most incredibly, undeniably human collection of stories I’ve ever seen. Beginning with the Old Testament, we have, much like Aesop, the stories of people who have very specific flaws to overcome.

So while the Old Testament is instructive in its morals, obedience can only get us so far. That’s why we have to New Testament, then - because it gives us the Perfect Example: and he is the Christ. If you find biblical things “just a fantasy”, then I hope you never forget just how powerful fantasy can be. Amazingly, the story of Christ isn’t about how he is so far beyond our reach but that he is within it, that there is bit of him inside everyone of us. In the pages of scripture we have the account of a man who stared down temptation, pain, and ultimately Death to come out victor. This is the story of a man who on the cross looked to the sky and said “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do”. Fictional or not, his perfect example inspired the the American Revolution, gave inspiration to men like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and continually gives light to those in darkness.

This is what saved my life. Because when I was angry, angry at my parents, angry at the world, and ultimately angry at myself, I wondered if life was worth it. I thought that if I died, maybe I’d be missed, but in the end I would just be another sad story, content to be an uncomfortable spot of gloom people remember but avoid thinking about. But...

“Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see!”

I found a Bible in my room. (checklist: angry at parents, angry at world, angry at me... oh, I DID forget to check off God.) I don’t care if it’s a fantasy. I don’t care if you think it’s a fantasy. I don’t care because this shows us just how powerful the stories in our lives can be. “Being Christlike”, as intangible as the subject may be, became a tangible goal. The point of this speech is not “read the bible” rather, take away from this “READ!”. Because ultimately, “Humans need fantasy to be human, to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.” And if there’s one thing that reading fiction can teach us, it’s Hope.