Not long ago I gave a talk at The Green Room JBay.
The subject was storytelling, but not storytelling in the way most people think about it.
I wasn't interested in plot twists, character arcs or writing techniques. I wanted to explore a different question:
Why do stories matter?
Why does a film about a young lion still move millions of people decades after it was released?
Why do we recognise ourselves in characters who don't exist?
The answer, I believe, is that stories are not entertainment first.
Stories are maps.
They help us navigate the mystery of being human.
One of the people who thought deeply about this was Joseph Campbell. Campbell spent much of his life studying myths from around the world and noticed something remarkable.
Cultures separated by oceans, languages and centuries kept telling remarkably similar stories.
Different heroes.
Different settings.
The same journey.
He called this pattern the Hero's Journey.
Years later, writer Dan Harmon simplified Campbell's work into an eight-step structure known as the Story Circle. It's a model I use constantly in my own writing because it captures something fundamental about change.
Not just in stories.
In life.
The Lion King follows this structure almost perfectly.
More importantly, so do we.
The World We Know
When we first meet Simba, life is simple.
He is safe. Loved. Protected.
His place in the world feels certain.
Most stories begin here because most lives begin here. We all start inside some version of the familiar, whether that is childhood, a relationship, a career, or simply an idea of who we think we are.
But stories do not begin because life is comfortable.
Stories begin because something is missing.
The Thing We Lack
Simba is curious.
He wants to explore beyond the boundaries his father has set.
At first glance, this seems like childish disobedience.
But curiosity is often the force that drives transformation. Something inside us knows there is more to discover, even when discovery carries risk.
Growth rarely begins because we are satisfied.
It begins because something unsettled within us refuses to stay quiet.
Entering The Unknown
When Mufasa dies and Simba flees the Pride Lands, everything changes.
The world he understood is gone.
He leaves carrying shame, grief and guilt.
Every meaningful transformation requires this crossing.
Sooner or later life forces us beyond the edge of what is familiar. We lose something. Fail at something. Have our hearts broken. Face a truth we would rather avoid.
We leave the known world and enter territory we do not understand.
Learning To Survive
Simba finds Timon and Pumbaa.
He learns new ways of living.
New rules.
New beliefs.
This is the stage where we adapt.
When relationships end, careers collapse, addictions take hold, or recovery begins, we spend time learning how to survive in a new landscape.
We experiment.
We stumble.
We build skills.
But survival is not the same thing as healing.
And eventually life asks a deeper question.
The Truth We Cannot Avoid
Years later Simba meets Nala again.
She tells him what has become of the Pride Lands.
Everything is suffering.
They need him to return.
He refuses.
Not because he is weak.
Because he is ashamed.
This, for me, is the most important moment in the story.
The real obstacle is not Scar.
The real obstacle is the story Simba tells himself about who he is.
Then Rafiki appears.
He reminds Simba of something he has forgotten.
"Your father lives in you."
In other words:
You are not who you think you are.
You are more than your guilt.
More than your mistakes.
More than the story you've been telling yourself.
Every transformation begins with a truth like this.
The Price Of Growth
Insight alone is not enough.
Once Simba understands what he must do, he still has to act.
And action always costs something.
He must leave behind the life he built.
He must face pain.
He must risk failure.
He must become someone new.
This is true of every meaningful change.
The person we become is purchased at the cost of the person we were.
Returning Home
Simba returns to confront Scar.
But the battle is not really about Scar.
Not yet.
First he must confront the shame he has carried for years.
Only when the truth emerges — that Scar was responsible for Mufasa's death — does Simba finally become free.
The external battle mirrors the internal one.
As it often does in stories.
As it often does in life.
Becoming Someone New
By the end of the film Simba has become what he was always capable of becoming.
Not because he defeated a villain.
Because he integrated the parts of himself he had spent years running from.
The frightened child.
The guilty exile.
The future king.
He becomes whole.
And that is why the story resonates.
Not because it is about lions.
Because it is about us.
What fascinates me about stories is that they keep telling us the same thing.
The dragon is never really the dragon.
The villain is never really the villain.
The battle is never really the battle.
The real struggle is always happening inside.
Simba thinks he must defeat Scar.
What he really has to defeat is shame.
Only once he does that can he become who he was meant to be.
Perhaps that's why stories endure.
Not because they tell us about heroes.
Because they tell us about ourselves.
Watch the full talk above.
0 comments