Upon reading and discussing the different narrative values our lives express, I believe May’s argument for narrative values is strengthened.
Similarities
The three narrative values which I believe are exhibited in my life are steadfastness, intellectual curiosity, and personal integrity. I share the value of intellectual curiosity with Hydia only. I share the value of steadfastness with Zach only. Hydia and Zach both share in expressing the narrative value of subtlety. Personal Integrity was claimed by myself, Zach, and Hydia; however, I believe that Rob also displays the value of personal integrity as well. When he mentioned sincerity as one of his narrative values, he also mentioned that he believes it is always better to tell the truth than some falsehood. To me, this indicates that he has a certain code of values which he adheres to in life, which is what is characterized in a personally integral life.
Differences
Understandably, we all express different narrative values in our lives. Rob is the only person in our group who considers his life to express wittiness. Zach is the only person in our group who exhibits the values of spontaneity and adventurousness in our group.
Analysis
Narrative values lend a life meaning under certain circumstances. One of those circumstances is that the person is subjectively engaged in the value, meaning that their lives are not accidentally courageous or curious, the person on some level endorses the value for themselves. Another circumstance is that the person should not express the value in the pursuit of an immoral end, such as the case with Hitler.
The first circumstance of subjective engagement requires that the person is actually engaged in the value rather than passively experiencing it. May uses the example of a concertgoer feeling intensity momentarily at the concert, while the performing artist can be the one to bring the feeling of intensity by virtue of the way they live. In that scenario, the only one who actually exhibits the narrative value of intensity is the artist. This makes it difficult for us to determine whether or not, for the the purposes of this project, the narrative values we believe characterize our lives are actually experienced like the artist, or felt like the concertgoer. When we each reflected on the narrative values expressed in our lives, we turned to episodes of our lives to demonstrate times in which we exhibited certain narrative values. By saying that I believe Rob exhibits personal integrity, I am making an observation about the way he lives his life and saying that he does exhibit the value, even though he might not have thought it applied to his life. So for all of the values we each expressed, having them confirmed by an external observer could help establish the validity of our claims that our lives are, in fact, characterized by the values we reflected on.