Narrate Your Day Off

Narration as a Human Communication Paradigm: The Case of Public Moral Argument

By: Walter R. Fisher

Everyone has a story to tell and in this article, Fisher explains how people are narrative individuals through the narrative paradigm. The narrative paradigm branches from argumentative and persuasive themes.

The word “narration” in this sense is a theory of symbolic actions such as words or deeds according to the author. Along with this statement, Fisher also believes that communication is based off of story telling, however, not all stories are the same. In order to argue that all told stories are not the same Fisher created the narrative paradigm to differ from rational world claims.

National World Paradigm:

- People are rational

- Human decision making is clear cut

- The speaking situation can determine the argument

- Rationality is measured by how much we know and argue

- The world is a set of logical puzzles that we can solve through rational analysis

Fisher’s viewpoint:

- People are storytellers

- Make decisions on the basis of good reasons

- History, biography, culture, and character helps us consider what is good reason

- Narrative rationality is determined by the coherence and fidelity of our stories

- The world is a set of stories from which we choose, and thus constantly re-create, our lives

After this eventful weekend of Super Bowl preparations, Sunday was the day to enjoy the game and watch the infamous commercials. My favorite of the night was Mathew Broderick’s Cr-V ad. . For those who have not seen the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , it is about a high school senior who decides to play hooky yet again. This movie is quite different as the main character breaks the “fourth wall” to speak in most in depth thoughts and his decision-making. Now, many years later, Mathew Broderick has taken that senior from high school and recreated the character to tell the story again of Ferris Bueller to an audience that has grown up to someone that normally gets up and travels to work every day. However, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”