What's the use?

"What's the use of stories that aren't even true?" This quote comes from Salman Rushdie's book, Haroun and the Sea of Stories. It does make us wonder though, why do we continually create and tell stories that are not even true? The books of fiction give us incite into another world and into anther's life. Stories are often used as teaching aids by adults to send a message on to the younger generations. Also, because people have become so far advanced in technology and our lives have become so much easier, we have time to make-believe and have time to enjoy the stories that originate from there.

In a story, we are given incite and anything is possible. The good guy always gets the reward and the bad guy always ends up being punished. I don't know anyone who does not look into a book and wonders, "What would happen if I was in her place?" Things we can never imagine happening become real and valid and we see how it happens. For instance, when our class read The Power Of One I was able to see what the life of an English boy living among the mixed races in South Africa would have felt during his life. I have never been to South Africa, I have never done research on South Africa, and I probably will never go to South Africa, but I know now the heart and mind of one such boy.

Throughout time, adults have told teaching stories to educate and warn the young. The "Boogie Man" is one such story used to teach young children to behave. But stories are not only told to frighten children into behaving. Aesop told a multitude of stories that mealy taught a lesson such as, "Be kind to your elders", "Don't treat someone in a way you wouldn't want to be treated", and "Don't tell lies because when you are telling the truth, no one will believe you." Stories hold the attentions of the young and delivers a lesson in a way that they understand better than just having the lesson told to them.

Just looking at the hundreds of books that exist in our world, we must surmise that all of them are not for teaching. As history has gone by, it has become obvious that our lives are getting easier due to the fact that we no longer have to worry about surviving from one day to the next. The invention of and the wide use of the TV give evidence to the fact that we now have leisure. On average, people spend over five hours a day watching TV, and most of that comprises of sitcoms. As humans we find pleasure and humor in the telling and hearing of stories.

All in all, we have many uses for telling stories. I for one would be lost without a good book at hand to take me into a foreign land and lets me ride a dragon. Sometimes I find the characters in a book, just as real as those people around me.