The Temptations of Story

    If you have ever watched life history movies, you will notice that they follow very similar patterns: stories of early adversity followed by a struggle, periods of learning, and finally maturity, where a person's demons are confronted and surmounted. Of course, I am generalizing a lot here, but it seems that biographical narratives seek to follow mythical patterns of birth, trial, conquest and return. Many people, including myself, have longed for this pattern to occur at certain periods in their lives, especially when they are confronted with a very long journey that may or may not end in success. There is a craving for a guarantee that one's efforts will make a difference to others, in some big or small way. Even the great religions in the world tend to follow the life trajectory of one great, heroic or powerful being, to the point where life is meant to imitate this person. I find it touching to reflect on these religions, to know that there is a being whose love is so great that they were able to lay down a pattern for all humanity to embody and imitate.
   I have to admit, however, that I am observing in myself an opposite tendency, and that is to slow down awareness to the point where it is not looking for grand narratives in life. This part realizes that narratives can create all kinds of cravings and suffering, especially when a person wants her or his life to conform to one of their favorite stories, only to realize that it simply fails to do so. Emma Bovary is one example of a character in fiction whose life is so steeped in the grand narratives of romantic sacrifice that the life she actually has pales in comparison. This, along with a strange liaison , leads her eventually to despair and death. The problem I see in Madame Bovary is not, as some have suggested, that she lives in a kind of bourgeoisie prison, but rather that perhaps she has too many stories filtering out her experiences. Her mind becomes a kind of trap of its own.
   It leads me to wonder, is there a way to read stories that does not create the concomitant desire to live as though one were in an unfolding story? I guess my question hinges upon the related question of whether or not it's good and necessary to try to structure one's life in terms of story. Schopenhauer has said that toward the end of one's life, one is particularly inclined to do so because one has much more perspective on what has happened in the decades before, as well as the wisdom to be able to properly narrative and interpret those experiences. But note that Schopenhauer suggests this to happen in the advent of old age, and not as an unfolding process that happens in one's day to day experiences. Schopenhauer seems to be skeptical of the ability for one to find a fitting life story when the will to live (or life craving) is particularly strong.
     Overall, while I think that narratives are thought provoking tools to connect communities, I still feel deep inside that there are also destructive or shadowy aspects to narrative, including the expectations of heroic endings in one's own life. In today's academic world, we are going through a period where narrative research has become trendy, but I wonder if anyone has ever worked out theories regarding when narrative truly expands to enfold and embrace community, and when it might collapse identity by creating all sorts of attachments or internal projections.