Narrative Theory

In the past, when Hilary (my wife) gets off work, she sometimes is quick to tell me about what went on during her day. She doesn’t simply tell me the content of her message, for example, “we had a lot of jobs come in and it was stressful,” rather, she tells me the story of her day. She uses hand gestures, facial expressions, and other nonverbal cues when she tells me about her day. She is passionate when she tells me about her day, sometimes raising her voice or changing her tone.

I know Hilary is a good story teller because her stories are always cohesive and easy to follow; she tells them for a specific reason, or to help me understand something exciting or difficult during her day. Her stories also display fidelity, or seem truthful because everything is consistent and reliable.

If I wanted to take this one step further, I could analyze the types of stories Hilary chooses to tell me about her work, in order that I might understand either what is important to her or what is having the greatest impact on her at work. This is really important for me to try to do because she works full time, and it is important for me to understand what impacts her. If I can utilize the narrative theory/performance theory in order to better understand my wife and her life at work, then it would act as a huge benefit in our marriage.

REACTION QUESTION:

I am choosing to look at Jennifer Garcia's definition of family. Which is,

"A family is the person or people that will nurture you while you grow, teach you life's lessons, then watch you fly on your own. They guide you throughout your life and love you unconditionally. They make your life richer because they are in it. The bonding love you share is your greatest gift to each other."

I like this definition, but I have a slight tendency to disagree with the last sentence that talks about 'the bonding love you share is your greatest gift.' Sometimes, within a family, it isn't necessairly "LOVE" that is the greatest gift, for instance, my dad loves me a whole lot. He is an amazing man, BUT, that is not his greatest gift to me. He is insanely consistent and wise and that is his greatest gift to me. As I brainstorm many other families off the top of my head, I am thinking that there must be many members of a family whose greatest gift may very well differ from LOVE.