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Eric Callison

English 111

Marisa Enos

19 February 2017

Finding Common Ground Between Skeletons and Cultural Language

There are some critical components in conveying the correct information or more

importantly using language that is best suited to not only reach but also make sense to the

intended audience. Communication is utilized to such a high degree in our everyday lives that it

almost seems mundane, maybe even sometimes monotonous, yet this interaction is one of the

most complex things we as humans do. There are two articles that address communication and

language to a further degree. The first is Language: Teaching New Worlds / New Words which

is written by bell hooks, she was not only an author but she is also a social activist, and a

feminist. She also studied at the University of California Santa Cruz. In this article hooks

addresses home languages reverse academic languages. The next article is called Story

Skeletons by Robert Schank. He brings to light the way stories are told, but more specifically

that there are many ways to tell stories and each have their own skeleton.

Schank provides a more complex view on the way one might construct their description

of events. hooks says shifting how we think about language and how we use it necessarily alters

how we know what we know (59). Very similarly this is said by Schank, if we construct our

own version of the truth by reliance upon skeleton stories, two people can know exactly the same

facts but construct a story that relays those facts in very different ways (129). It is important that

people utilize certain skeletons when telling stories in order to help the listeners relate to what

they are being told. hooks utilizes various story skeletons throughout her article.
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hooks is a feminist, and with that came advocates that spoke up to seek more of a diverse

participation within the movement, but there was not any discussion of different ways to use

language. It was simply assumed that standard English would remain the primary vehicle for

transmission of feminist thought (hooks 59). Prior to these happenings, these languages and

speech were not accessible for everyone. Now that the audience for feminist writing and

speaking has language, creating spaces where diverse voices can speak in words other than

English or in broken the vernacular speech (hooks, 59). In order for these people to understand

this information, it must be relating to them in some way. If the action is in any way incoherent,

we make it more sensible by putting it into a framework that is acceptable to those who hear a

story (Schank 134).

More than just being heard and understood it is just as important for the story to be

remembered. Story skeletons can have an important effect on memory (Schank 133).

Depending on how we tell the story according to how we see the world will ultimately have an

effect on how well the story will be remembered. In contrast between the two articles it seems

that Schank describes in more detail focusing on certain aspects of story skeletons. Whereas

hooks talks about the power of language saying like desire, language disrupts, refuses to be

contained within boundaries. It speaks itself against our will, and words and thoughts that

intrude, even violated the most private spaces of our mind and body (hooks 56). Schank talks

more specifically about stories skeletons saying,

If we tell a story that is really brand-new, in the sense that none of the behaviors

has been seen before, then both the teller and the hearer have a great deal of work

to do. The teller must relate almost all the events that took place. He cannot take
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shortcuts and assume that his hearer will infer the details because his hearer has

no basic everyday story to use as a guide. (139)

There is a give-and-take situation going on when this happens. but the teller must stick

directly to how the events happened because of the listener of the story cannot associate this

unfamiliar story to a common story that they have been heard before. hooks speaks from the

heart on a lot of really deep and powerful subjects that seem to have a very personal effect on her

life. A lot of these messages that she speaks of probably are not very relatable to most people.

She has to implement different ways to help the reader understand and in that way, she uses story

skeletons to help her tell the story and to have it be easily understood. In each case, certain

aspects of the story being transmitted or enhanced and certain elements are left out altogether

(Schank 130). hooks make sense of this by saying I suggest that we do not necessarily need to

hear and know what is stated in its entirety, that we do not need to master or conquer the

narrative as a whole, that we may know it in fragments (hooks 59). I feel that in storytelling this

principle is relevant as well. In other words, if what we do what fits into a well-known socially

accepted story skeleton, then we can believe that we have acted properly (Shanks 134).

I think hooks makes several very valid points that pertain to how. I know that it is not

the English language that hurts me, but what the oppressors do with it, how they shape it to

become a territory that limits and defines, how they make it a weapon that can shame, humiliate,

colonize (hooks 56). She might have been utilizing the story skeleton understandable tragedy

(Schank 129) to display a feeling to her audience. hooks talks about how those slaves were taken

against their will and stripped of their native language and forced to use the oppressors

language. We have so little knowledge of how displaced, enslaved, or free Africans who came

or were brought against their will to the United States felt about the loss of language, about
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learning English (hooks 56). She needs the reader to connect and feel the information to get the

message across. One way of feeling that you have made sense is to tell your story to other

people and hear them respond and positive, supportive, ways (Schank 136). Moreover, to

further the point Im trying to get at is how when people want to make a case for themselves or

when they choose a well-known culturally agreed upon skeleton one to which they can predict a

reaction of the others (Schank 136).

I think the major point that hooks was trying to make was something she had repeatedly

said throughout her writing was that this is the oppressors language yet I need it to talk to you

(56). I believe that this translates to the meaning that the oppressed were forced to abandon their

own language and use the oppressors language which was English. It is the language of

conquest and domination; in the United States, it is the mask which hides so many tongues, all

the sounds of diverse, native communities we will never hear, the speech of the Gullah, Yiddish,

and so many unremembered tongues (hooks 56). In a way, Robert Schanks main point that he

was trying to portray was that telling stories sometimes is best to just let the facts speak for

themselves when people are trying to understand an event that happened, especially a

controversial event (128).

Based on the two readings a conclusion that can be formed that there truly are many

ways that a story can be told to a group or individual. Depending on a whole host of factors, if

the right story skeleton is used it will serve to help ensure that the hearer understands the story

and that it is relatable. Also, we must learn to adapt our behavior and the message as well as the

language we use to better suit the environment and culture around us as well as the crowd that

we are together with.


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Works Cited
hooks, bell. Language: Teaching New Worlds/New Words. Exploring Connection: Learning

in the 21st Century, Pearson Education, 2016, pp. 55-60.

Schank, Robert. Story Skeletons. Exploring Connection: Learning in the 21st Century, Pearson

Education, 2016, pp. 128-140.

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