What are Stories?

Stories are told for many different reasons, to teach, educate, entertain, etc. The Canterbury Tales were written by Geoffrey Chaucer who was born in London, England in 1340. As a man who worked for the royals and had many adventures throughout his life, he became a nobleman who was in training to be a knight. He appealed to the masses due to his walks with the different social classes. The Canterbury Tales start off by the narrator traveling to Canterbury and happily joins a group of twenty-nine other people who set off early in the morning for their journey. As the story continues the narrator of the story offers the pilgrims a game each one tells two stories going to and two stories coming back in order to form some kind of entertainment in such a long journey. Stories are important because they usually always have some kind of truth to them and more often than not can make everyone have a good time no matter what they are doing. Good stories consist of a theme (this one is the corruption of the church and the importance of company), imagery ( “sweet-smelling showers”, “tunic of coarse cloth”, “medal bright silver”), and usually contain some kind of symbols. Now in modern times sometimes stories don’t have much meaning or they do and it’s hidden. A good example of a story could be someone’s own personal experience but they amp it up a bit by using exaggerations, and tons of imagery. Stories can also have a powerful message in them that connect us to each other and stimulate empathy. Sometimes stories are just ways to escape our own reality and give our brains a break, or just view the world through someone else’s lenses.