Kelsey Steven - Orality and Literacy

In a section of Walter Ong's book Orality and Literacy he discusses that when the novel was becoming popular, the way stories were being told changed dramatically. Orally told stories were usually continuations of the story of one main hero who, in each story, has to overcome some kind of physical obstacle. In the written story, a hero was transformed into the detective, his obstacles becoming psychological and geared toward having closure within the one story. The story became a concrete thing that was characterized by closure rather than continuation. However, I recognized that there is a compromise between the two types of story telling. The novel went back toward the oral style of storytelling when the novel series was invented. A book series follows the trials and trepidation of a hero who endures both physical and psychological obstacles, as well as the novel not being completely characterized by closure because there are multiple stories continuing the adventures, like had been done in oral storytelling. An example is the Lord of the Rings series in which we follow Frodo in his mission to destroy the Ring of Power. He psychologically struggles in bearing the evil ring and he also must fight beasts and malicious creatures along the way -- the mixture of psychological and physical obstacles. There are also three books that make up the story, which encompasses the closure of a written story but also the continuation of an oral story.