The Essential Question: How does the concept of heroes and villains shape our world?

We are storytellers. As long as there have been human beings on this planet, there have been stories.

Why are stories so important?

From the earliest of times, stories have been told to entertain, to expand our minds and imaginations, to communicate history, to explain, to pass on cultural attitudes and expectations.

Stories entertain us. When we read stories like Holes, Tangerine, The Giver, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Short Stories, Fairy Tales, Fables, Myths, Tall Tales, Legends, Narrative Poems we ore entertained.

Stories expand our minds and imaginations. When we read about Tom Sawyer, we raft adventurously on the Mississippi while coming of age. When we read fairy tales, fables, and myths, we travel the world, expanding our vocabularies as well as our horizons. When we read novels, short stories, and poems, we become the heroes and defeat the villains; our minds open in ways in which we never would of dreamed.

Stories communicate history. When can read “The Ride of Paul Revere” or Columbus’s journals, we are transported to a different time and place. We are there, but with different eyes. When we read about Jackie Robinson or Rosa Parks, we begin to understand the growing pains of our country. When we read about the Holocaust, we see a world view that we hope to never repeat.

Stories explain. Myths were written to make sense of the world. Every culture has its myths. The Greek’s Pandora tried to explain the evil in the world. The Roman’s Cupid accounted for the concept of love. But all of our stories are means of exploring good and evil, heroes and villains. All of our stories help us deal with the world around us.

Stories pass on cultural values and expectations. Our stories communicate the way we are and the way we want to be. What is important to a culture is communicated through its stories. We admire Tom Sawyer’s ingenuity and sense of adventure. We despise the cruelty and duplicity of Injun Joe. The lack of emotion in Jonas’s world in The Giver is appalling to us; but the Giver’s empathy and compassion are admirable. Heroes and villains are characters we use to convey what we value and what we scorn. They teach us the principles and beliefs of our society.

Here, in Room # Language Arts, we write stories! We are the future entertainers, mind expanders, teachers, explainers, historians !

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. -Ray Bradbury Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures. -Jessamyn West When you reread a classic you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than was there before. -Clifton Fadiman