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Meg Strauss
Professor EJ Levy
E332
28 February 2017

Two of Three Things I Know For Sure:

Story as an Instrument for Survival

In her memoir Two or Three Things I Know For Sure, author Dorothy Allison portrays

storytelling as an instrument for survival. Throughout the novel, stories play a strong role in

helping Allison, as well as Allisons family, endure the horrific and heartbreaking events that

surround their lives. While storytelling is most often associated with happy bedtime stories and

fairytales, Allison takes this association one step further, truly allowing the reader to understand

how stories aided in Allisons ultimate strength and survival.

In the very start of the story, Allison illustrates how stories helped her cope with the

misfortune of her and her familys situation and reputation. Allison states that her and her family

were known as the the lower orders, the great unwashed, the working class, the poor,

proletariat, trash, lowlife, and scum (Allison, 1). By referring to her perceived status, the reader

is given a glance at Allisons childhood, which highlights why Allison needed an escape.

Storytelling, as she reveals, provided that escape. Allison writes,

I walked and told myself storiesWhen I walked, I talkedstory-talked, out loud

assuming identities I made up. Sometimes I was myself, arguing loudly as I could never

do at home. Sometimes I became people I had seen on the television or read about in
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books, went places Id barely heard of, did things that people I knew had never done,

particularly things that girls were not supposed to do. In the world as I remade it, nothing

was forbidden; everything was possible (Allison, 2).

With stories, Allison removed herself from the unfortunate world she was born into. In

the stories she created, she was not bound to a life full of pain and poverty. Telling herself stories

became her method of escapism, ultimately providing her with moments free of reality. These

moments during her rough childhood, in all essence, gave Allison the strength to endure her

awful adolescence.

While storytelling gave Allison an essential escape from her reality as a young girl,

stories also gave her hope. Throughout the novel, Allison reveals much about her family. Most

notably, Allison mentions how many of her family members never broke away from the town

that initiated so much pain upon them. For example, Allison tells how her mother seemed to have

so much promise in leaving her town, but ended up working forty years as a waitress, teasing

quarters out of truckers, and dimes out of hairdressers, pouring extra coffee for a nickel, or

telling an almost true story for a half a dollar (Allison, 26).

In the start of the novel, Allison tells her sisters, Let me tell you about the women who

ran away. All those legendary women who ran away (Allison, 2). Within this quote, Allison

seems to be praising the women who left her town. Creating or seeing these women in a positive

light allows Allison to believe that one day she too can become one of these legendary women.

In the stories that Allison told herself or in the stories that were told to her, she sees that

she does not have to become her mother. She sees that she does not have to continue to live in

the pain her whole life. Most importantly, she sees that while her young self might be restricted
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to her miserable surroundings, her dreams and futures do not have to be. By seeing this hope

throughout stories, Allison is able to gain the confidence to leave all she has ever known, truly

guaranteeing her survival.

Stories also allowed Allison to discover her roots. Throughout the novel, pictures of

Allisons family members lay on approximately every page. As the reader begins to read

Allisons memoir, it becomes quickly apparent that this is not simply an autobiography; rather,

this is a story of her as well as her familys story. Allison tells about her uncles, stating, My

uncles went to jail like other boys go to high school. They took up girls like other people choose

a craft (28.) She also talks deeply about her mother, grandmother, sisters, and aunt.

By hearing and retelling these stories about her own family, Allison discovers where she

comes from, why she is the way she is, and how she can ultimately break the cycle of pain that

passes throughout the familial generations. By understanding her roots, Allisons identity is

strengthened. Having a firmly-set identity only makes Allison stronger, able to not allow the pain

to define her. Hearing these stories of her family seems to provide comfort for Allison, as she is

constantly yearning to hear more stories about her kin. The text reads,

For two decades every time I visited, I shuffled through those picturesscores of

ancient snapshots stuffed in a box in the end table in Mamas living room. Each time I

pulled them out and asked Mama to go through them with me. The faces in Mamas box

were full of storiesongoing tragedies, great novels, secrets and mysteries and longings

no one would ever know (Allison, 17).

It is because of this comfort in knowing ones roots that Allison seems to make a point of

passing on familys stories. For instance, when visiting her sister, Allison speaks to her niece,
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saying to her, Sit down baby. I got a story to tell you. Look at your mama. You know how she

is? Well, let me tell you about the day death was calling your mamas name, death was singing

her song and luring her away (Allison, 84).

Throughout Allisons memoir, there is a strong sense of what her family was like, all told

through stories. Due to her need to know stories of her family and her need to carry on these

stories, the reader can assume how important these family stories are to Allison. These stories,

wrapped in pain, humor, and truth, all help Allison confirm her identity, all the while ensuring

that simple sadness will not break such a strong sense of self.

Storytelling also gave Allison a way to honestly express her and her familys reality.

Telling her own stories ultimately gave Allison the power to speak the truth, to defy the

embarrassment associated with her family. The text reads,

I tell my stories louder all the time: mean and ugly stories, funny, almost bitter stories;

passionate, desperate storiesall of them have to be told in order not to tell the one the

world wants, the story of us broken, the story of us never laughing out loud, never

learning to enjoy sex, never being able to love or trust again, the story in which all the

survives is the flesh. That is not our story (Allison, 72).

Arguably the most important role stories played throughout Allisons life were helping

her overcome the ill effects of sexual abuse. Allison states, The man raped me. Its the truth. Its

a fact (Allison, 39). From here, she begins to tell the story of how she was sexually abused by

her stepfather.

Storytelling acted as a form of therapy for Allison. She states,

I started saying [the word rape] to get to that release that feeling of letting go, of

setting loose both the hatred and the fear. The need to tell my story was terrible and

persistent, and I needed to say it bluntly and cruelly, to use all those words, those old

awful tearing words. I need to be a woman who can talk about rape plainly, without being

hesitant or self-conscious, or vulnerable to what people might be saying this year

(Allison, 44).

Allison was taught that acknowledging rape was bad. She writes that she was often asked,

Why do you bring that up? Must you talk about that? (Allison, 43). She was not able to vocally

express her pain without feeling the repercussions of admitting something that everyone else

pretended not to know of. Telling the story of her sexual abuse gave Allison an outlet to speak

the truth. No longer was she forced to hide what her stepfather was doing to her, slowly allowing

the secret to crush her.

Not only did stories help her cope with the abuse, stories also helped Allison stand up to

her stepdad. Allison writes that she told her stepfather, You cant break me. And youre never

going to touch me again (Allison, 68). She describes that this act of resistance as a story to tell

myself, a promise (68). She knew that she did not want her own story defined by abuse. She

knew that having a story based upon resilience and assertiveness gave her a chance to ease the

pain caused by her stepfather.

Stories gave Allison hope, strength, identity, and promise. They gave her a chance to

move on from sadness and destitute, find herself through her family, stand up to her biggest

bully, and cope and vocalize abuse.

Allison writes, Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that to go on

living I have to tell stories, that stories are the one way I know to touch the heart and change the

world (Allison, 72). A story full of stories, Allisons memoir truly highlights how she used

storytelling as an instrument to her own survival.

Works Cited

Allison, Dorothy. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure. New York: Dutton, 1995. Print.