How as storytellers do we tackle the issue of brokenness? Can we tell a story without giving absolutes and solutions to every tragedy or unknown?
It’s tempting to provide answers to every philosophical and even spiritual questions our story poses, but is that the author’s responsibility?
Or is art showing life in its true form? Art is what is, even what could be in a broken world.
I admit, most of the time I’m tempted to sanitize all the ugliness and broken parts by the end of the book. Have answers for all the injustices and wrongs that naturally occur. While I want to tie up loose ends with a resolution of sorts, does the resolution have to be, “happily ever after?”
Some of my favorite stories in literature don’t.
- North and South. While Margaret Hale end up with Mr. Thornton, she has to endure the loss of her parents, her godfather, her friend Bessy, and the innocence of her childhood. Elizabeth Gaskell doesn’t attempt to explain nor sanitize the tragedies she points out: starving families, military injustice, and callousness of the fashionable London society.
- To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson doesn’t receive justice. And when attempting to escape prison, he’s shot and killed. Scout never sees Boo Radley after he saves her life from Bob Ewell.
Those are a few examples to show how as authors beauty comes from telling the story as it is, entails and all.
I wonder if as authors we don’t want to disappoint our readers when we provide a sanitized version of a story? But is that sanitized version really art? Are we showing the beauty of a broken world? Or can we simply pose these questions and leave them unanswered for our readers to grapple with?
And yes, our stories often have themes. And as writers we can present them clearly to the reader. But the art is in the presentation, not playing God, tidying it all up in a square box. Sealed shut without any further breath. And that’s what helps make our stories magical, living beyond ourselves as we let the reader breathe their own life into our story. Or inspire them to grapple with their own issues. Or help give color when it felt colorless. Or give them a voice as they realize they’re not alone in the struggle.
How about you? What stories depict life as is without starching the wrinkles in our world? Please share in Comments below. Thank you.
Featured Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash