"I Could Tell You Stories"

Eli Pardue
8/27/07
AP Lang. Comp
LaMags

“I Could Tell You Stories”

I very much enjoyed the class discussion for Red Sky In The Morning. The woman on the bus next to Patricia Hayel opened her conversation with "I could tell you stories," but instead of doing so, she closes her eyes and falls asleep, leaving Patricia to ponder why she did not tell stories. The word 'could' in her statement made all the difference. It provided her statement with an air of uncertainty, as if she could tell stories but for some reason in not going to or can't. Perhaps something in her story is so rawly emotional that a story cannot give full justice to her experiences. Stories are all we have as vessels for our emotions and experiences, but if ones experiences and emotions are to intense to be fully appreciated, it may be better to the person in question to leave their experiences to be imagined.