The Power of Life Stories

One of the most foundational themes in LOST is the hugely powerful roles that stories play in our lives. That is not surprising, since it's true in real life, perhaps more than most people suspect. An entire branch of psychology has arisen and developed surrounding this phenomenon, including therapy and treatment approaches. There's another interesting characteristic of the survivors' stories on LOST. They all involve father figures.

Stories, good and bad, have characteristics. They tend to be generational, passed on from father and mother, to son and daughter. At the least our families heavily influence our stories; victims of abuse become abusers, doctors raise doctors, and alcoholics tend to raise alcoholics. It's also interesting that if the son or daughter chooses to break from a dominant family story, they tend to do so in a very strong and powerful, reactive fashion.

JACK'S STORY
In LOST for example, Jack becomes a doctor like his father, yet disdains his father's abuse of alcohol. One of Jack's most powerful stories is avoiding being like his father in that way. It is surprising then, that he abuses both alcohol and drugs later in S5. This is a questionable digression by the writers. But Jack's most powerful story is proving his father wrong about being weak, and not up to the hard choices in life. He's been told he doesn't have what it takes all his life. Jack works hard to measure up, and to be better than his father at everything he does. While that drive makes him a performer, it also leads to stridency, control, and dogmatism at times. To reach his potential, he must stop fighting his father's words, and develop enough self-confidence to listen. This affliction is a common story of leaders.

Some life stories are more popular than others. It has been researched and demonstrated that fairy tales are ageless because they are collections of the most popular life story lines. The story of Little Red Riding Hood, wherein the girl is attracted to the scary bad boy but then is saved by the hero, is argued to be one of the most common woman story in existence.

SAWYER'S STORY
Sawyer represents two stories. The first is more personal. As a boy, Sawyer watched his father gun down his mother and then shoot himself, after a con man cuckolded him and swindled his wife. Sawyer holds great rage for the con man, but then grows up to be the person he hates, playing the con man himself. Consequently he cares only for himself, feeds off others, and lies and steals until he is forced to run.

There is another very popular branch of the Little Red Hiding Hood story; girl falls in love with bad boy, who redeems himself (preferably with the girl's help) and they live happily ever after. This is clearly the story of Sawyer. The question on LOST has been which girl it will be. It had already played out with Juliet. At the end of S5, we don't know if she is dead.

STORY COLLECTIONS
Earlier we saw that fairy tales are collections of popular stories. Mythology is arguably an even stronger source, since the best stories include general life identities, such as good vs. evil. The story of Sobek is often the story of Cain and Abel, or even the origins of God vs. Satan. When we understand the power of stories, it is not surprising that we find popular stories mirrored across religions and philosophies. Almost everyone is aware of the story of Oedipus, who loved his mother. The term Oedipus Complex, in Freudian (another branch of psychology) derives from this popular boy story of penis envy on the way to man hood.

I believe the most astounding collection of life stories ever written is the Bible. Many non-believers denigrate the Bible by accusing it of being impossibly literal, unbelievable, or inconsistent. Wherever you are on the religious scale, the Bible teaches us the outcomes of a vast array of stories, and gives us examples of successful stories if we exercise our free will to live by them. And certainly Jesus, whether you believe in him or not, or his ability to perform miracles or rise from the dead, is one of the greatest life stories ever told.