There are many important lessons to be learned from stories, and many of them can be useful and crucial for authors to apply them and better their stories. In The Medicine Bag, Martin is a young boy who questions the importance of his family tradition of passing on a medicine bag every generation. When his grandfather comes, he learns the story behind the tradition, causing him to realize why the tradition is important and how he can honor his ancestors through it. In Ta Na E Ka, Mary is eleven, and has to undergo the sacred ritual of Ta Na E Ka, where she will have to go into the wilderness and survive for five days. But she decides to complete the tradition in a new way, and helps her grandfather adapt to a newer, more modern way of life. Traditions are the concept of doing something every generation that helps honor our cultural heritage and make our elders proud. Motifs make stories more suspenseful and more able to teach us the most pivotal lessons that we were meant to learn. Story structure is important because it allows us to have an outline by which to follow, and it spices up the plot and makes better conflicts. Traditions, structure, and motifs are things that help budding writers improve their stories and make them more understandable.
Traditions are paramount in building up our cultural identity, and we should respect those with different backgrounds. Traditions allow us to honor our ancestors and make us unique. They are a symbolic gesture that brings honor to our elder's memories. In The Medicine Bag, Martin used to be ashamed of his cultural heritage, but when his Grandpa comes and tells him the story of the Medicine Bag, he realizes the importance of it. This clearly shows the importance of our heritage, and how we may not realize it, but it's something important and worth valuing. Traditions allow us to honor our loved one's memories. In Ta Na E Ka, Mary took five dollars and during her ceremony, she went to a restaurant and ate burgers and shakes instead of living in the wild, but this allows her to understand how this tradition is important. This shows how traditions may change with modern times, and that their importance may be questioned, but ultimately they teach great lessons. Our heritage is important and we should value it because of how it allows us to honor our cultural identity and remember our ancestor's memories.
The structure of a story is very important, because it is the base that introduces to us the characters and the setting. The structure of a story is the outline, and without a clear structure the entire story will collapse, causing a mess. Story structures include the conflicts and the setting, which are major parts of a story. In The Medicine Bag, the major conflict was between traditions and the changing modern times, and Martin realized that even through the new times, his family's tradition was still viable and important. This clearly shows the importance of structure and conflicts, because of how it allows us to understand the story better. It includes crucial details on the story, and makes the plot more interesting. In Ta Na E Ka, the most important conflict was between the new changing times and whether her traditions would still be useful anymore. Despite how she completed the traditions in an unconventional method, she still learned the importance of it. It becomes clear that in this story, the conflict was the keystone of the plot, and the structure helped create suspense to help entertain the reader. Structure is a pivotal part of a story that allows us to better understand the finer nuances of a story.
The motifs in a story are a real test of the author's skill, and they show the ability of the author to insert morals and themes that help teach us. Motifs are symbols in a story that represent specific virtues or vices, and are often a key part of stories that appear often in books. There can be quests to reach a motif, or simply even just something that the main character always keeps. In the Medicine Bag, the most important motif was the medicine bag. It symbolized the traditions and cultural heritage that Martin's family passed on for generations, and when Martin learned this, he realized why he needed to carry on the tradition. Motifs represent the most important themes in a story, and can help us understand the morals and important ideas that the author is attempting to convey towards us. In Ta Na E Ka, the motifs were the five dollars that Mary took in exchange for multiple babysitting sessions, because it showed the changing times, but Mary accomplished the tradition anyways, showing the important theme of how despite changing times, traditions will endure. This shows how motifs can help us understand the importance of certain messages, and how it can teach us the most important themes that the author wants us to understand and remember. Motifs are a critical portion of stories, because of their ability to allow us to better understand the story and their most crucial themes.
Traditions, heritage, and our cultural identity are important parts of us that we need to remember because of how they allow us to honor our ancestors and our elders. A story’s structure is needed to help vitalize their writing and create complex conflicts and a provocative plot. Motifs are a vital part of stories in how they engage readers on an intuitive level, and how they draw attention to the lessons and themes the author wants us to learn. The Medicine Bag and Ta Na E Ka are two interesting stories that perfectly combine these three techniques and blend them together into fantastic anecdotes. They have many similarities, but also show immense differences that help make them both unique and show that their respected authors have great talent. These two books are masterpieces, and despite their differences they both are amazing.
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