East vs. West: The Moral of the Story Is...

The following is part of a series to examine differences between the East and the West. Particularly based in my experience with and travels to the Eastern world. I apologize in advance for any Western notions that affect or creep in on my analysis.

Stories... we are all captivated by them. I recall sitting on my dad's lap as a young child asking him not to read me a story book but rather to tell me a story. There is something special about a story that is told, from memory, imbued by one's own experience.

I waited eagerly for my father to tell me a tale of his own childhood, of adventures from the past, and I would place myself in the setting imagining the surroundings, the suspense, the unknown, the unresolved tension.

Many stories that children are told contain implicit or explicit lessons. When looking to teach a child a lesson we will tell a story that will explain the lesson or "moral" that the child needs to know. These types of story expose a divide between eastern and western thought.

Throughout my travels in the East I have heard many stories and I have read and studied stories from times past. These stories are powerful tales of peoples lives. Some are long and other short. They captivate your imagination and place you in a different time with different characters. None of these stories end with what we may expect them to end with: "The moral of the story is..."

Eastern culture is comfortable with the hearer coming to their own conclusion about the moral implications of the story. Stories told in the West are often concluded with "The moral of the story is..." Western culture is a uncomfortable with the unresolved tension and uncertainty of whether the hearer has walked away with the "correct" (same as the teller) moral of the story.

As I learn, as a Westerner, to live in this unresolved tension and uncertainty of leaving a story without an explicitly explained "moral" I have realized that the hearers often times see implications that are applicable to their individual circumstance that I could not have foreseen. It is this unforeseen impact that makes the Eastern approach to storytelling powerful and attractive.

September 23, 2007  |  Permalink   |  TrackBack (0)

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