Narrative Theory and Stories that Speak to Us - by Cynthia L. Selfe and the DALN Consortium
At three minutes and eighteen seconds into his ten-minute, six-second narrative, Yusuf begins a relatively long coda to his narrative. (“Cause to me it’s [immigrating to the U.S.] like an opportunity. You know what I’m sayin’? There’s a lot of people who are in my country, who don’t have this opportunity…”).
A key point in this coda is a recap of Yusuf’s transformative journey from a small village in Somalia to the U.S. In making this important point, Yusuf emphasizes the distance between his starting point and his current social location:
…I was born in a village, you know what I’m sayin’? Like in a village where there’s no school, nothing, no running water, no electricity, you know? Now this is not the Amish or something; this is serious, you know, jungle stuff, you know what I mean? I was born in a place like that. Today, I’m in Ohio State one of the biggest colleges.
Yusuf accompanies this summary with a small, wondering laugh and a shrug of the shoulders, adding,
It’s somethin’ I never thought of, somethin’ I never thought, you know, would happen.
