Between Two Worlds: Stories of the Second- Generation Black Caribbean Immigrant

People have an endless fascination with character information since it helps us to predict the behavior of those we interact with (King, Rumbaugh, and Savage-Rumbaugh 1999). Stories or narratives serve as an extension of this fascination. They help us make better decisions even without supplying immediate information. When we each talk about the past, our stories not only disclose currently relevant social particulars, but also provide tools for reasoning about action—our own and others’. In many instances, the stories we tell offer explanations of an outcome that resulted when we acted upon something—or serve as indirect memories of a place or a past event that guides our decisions today. Alternatively, the stories we tell can merely introduce us to a range of behaviors and experiences so that we have a richer context for understanding when we encounter something new. We tell stories because they appeal to our social intelligence. Sto-rytelling arises out of our capacity to understand one another and direct others ’ attention to real events. In the narrative process, the storyteller is a problem-solver, an individual with the capacity and preference to make strategic choices within particular situations, making different kinds of appeals to the cognitive preference and expectation of the listener. I