The Power of Storytelling

One of my favorite Disney stories growing up was The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I don’t say this because of the elaborately sculpted gargoyles or the emancipation of an outcast — although, “God Help The Outcasts” might be one of the most emotional moments of my childhood — I say this because of the underrated story-ception that we see. A story within a story of a ‘gypsy’ who tells tales and an “ugly” hunchback slave.

This children’s book successfully explores the pure genius of storytelling as a double-edged sword i.e. as an art and as a medium.

When making up stories, we start with ideas, think about a structure, wonder what our characters will look like….and then………loose our train of thought and never write a story.

The strange thing about storytelling is that even the best writers, orators and actors might not necessarily excel at it. It has to be captivating, structured (some would argue that stories could be deconstructed in which case the deconstructed nature of it becomes its structure) and most important of all, purposeful. This idea of storytelling, however, is not mine — it is a tale as old as time.

Storytelling is famously associated with Romas- who from the Middle Ages traveled in nomadic tribes from one town to another to tell stories, issue warnings and propagate folklore. The purpose of Romanic storytelling was to attract attention in the middle of the street, captivate people through music & dance and help them realize the existence of a supernatural presence, carried out through stories of miraculous mysteries, ethical misconducts, punishments, heroism and magic — and through it all — earn a coin or two to sustain themselves. One could argue that they knew the art of storytelling.

Further east, in the Vedic ages of India, storytelling was seen in epics and religious texts where Sanathana Dharma was being propagated through stories steeped in symbolism, intrinsic belief systems, moral codes and a variety of paths prescribed for salvation. The sources of these stories and their foundation in truth can be debated for years on end, however, their purpose is quite clear — stories were an interesting medium to help people aspire for a better life — to be ideal, to be ethical and to be religious. Thus, storytelling is a medium to fine-tune beliefs.

Now both these forms of storytelling are inter-related and very apparently incomplete without being the other but it can be observed that the act of storytelling itself is worth a story in itself. The purpose of a story’s narration decides whether storytelling must be used as a tool to simply communicate the story or one to dramatize it. This purpose would go on to define the tone, the length, the structure, the mood and the character and setting of the story. Storytelling (although taken for granted) is as essential as the story itself. Without an effectively built narration, the narrative suffers.

One must consider that stories are not simply written in children’s books to help kids fall asleep — they shape ideas, ethics, personalities, lifestyles, opinions, beliefs, minds and souls. If the different versions of the British colonization in every country’s history textbook is anything to go by, stories have the power to build nations and crumple economies. Today we see a hundred narratives float past us with multiple opinions & anecdotes attached to it but the ones that are engraved into our minds are the ones that are told well — the ones that make us stop and stare, the ones that freeze our mindless scrolling and make us click on “Read more”, the ones that employ the power of a little tool called storytelling.

Whether one appreciates it or not, in a world saturated with information, the one that will stand out will not be the most interesting story but the most interestingly told story. The power of storytelling is more palpable than ever.