Narrative Paradigm and The Office

What does it mean exactly to be what we call human? Well, philosophers,

anthropologists, and theologians alike have debated for years and years what the
answer to this question is. There is no singular answer, and it has become a highly
interpretive and controversial topic. Some would say that it is our physical bodies that
make us human- our anthropomorphic figure with which we see, hear, touch, taste and
smell. These people believe that humanity is a matter of what we're able to see.Others
would say that our humanity has to do with personality- the ability to make decisions,
the ability to distinguish right from wrong, interests and hobbies, the need for
companionship, etc. Some believe that our humanity is determined by characteristics.
Some people of this belief would even go as far to say that we would still be human if
we were in a different bodies.Communication theorists have their own speculations
answering this question- like the uncertainty reduction theory that states people are
curious in nature or Meads Symbolic Interactionism which says that our ability to create
and use symbols is what makes us uniquely human. Walter Fisher is a communication
theorist who believe that humanity is determined by the nonphysical instead of the
physical.
Walter Fisher believed that storytelling is a characteristic of our human nature.
We are born with the ability to see the point of a good story judge its merits as the basis
for belief and merit. We desire to tell stories and to hear them- whether these stories are
factual or fictional.He believes that we experience and comprehend life as a series of
ongoing narratives, as conflicts, characters, beginnings, middles, and ends. If this
stance has merit, then all forms of human communication with logical appeal should be

seen as narratives. As long as communication is occurring, then we dont leave story

mode.
Walter fisher coined the term Narrative Paradigm for his communication theory
about humanity and story. Narrative could be defined as symbolic actions, words
and/or deeds, that have sequence and meaning to those who live, create, and interpret
them. A paradigm could be defined as a conceptual framework by which we interpret
information.
Good reason has more to do with the ability to tell a good, compelling story as
opposed to constructing an argument of independent facts. We are logical creatures as
well as being storytelling narrative creatures.Considering this premise that we are
equally logical and storytellers, it is imperative that we are able to shift our paradigm to
a narrative mindset understand and experience this theory. There is no form of
communication that is without narrative and is purely didactic- movies,tv shows, novels,
personal accounts of past events where we are the main character, and phatic
interpersonal communication as well. Much of academia today is concerned with
concrete factual information that cannot be proven wrong- aesthetic appeal is not
considered. It is important to understand that we are capable of being logical with
factual information as well with philosophy, theory, narratives, etc.
Even though all communication can be considered story, not all stories are
created equal. Everyone applies the concepts of narrative rationality and therefore
should be equally equipped to detect a bad story. Because no one is perfect, this is not
always the case. The principle of this rationality is identification rather than deliberation.
In order for a narrative to be considered rational, it must be both coherent and contain

fidelity. Narrative coherence has to do with whether or not a story remains consistent
and holds together as one piece. A story is coherent when it is clear that ideas have not
been made up or left out completely and other reasonable interpretations have not been
left out. Coherence is determined by whether or not we can trust characters to act in a
reliable manner.We can test for this by comparing it to other similar stories. Narrative
fidelity is the quality of a story that causes the words to strike a responsive cord in the
life of the listener. In other words, can the listener relate with the story and apply
aspects of it to their own life?A story contains fidelity when it provides good reasons to
guide our future actions. When we choose to believe a story, we choose to instill the
type of character we should be within ourselves. Values and conscience set this idea
apart from rational logic. When we search a story for fidelity, we are not merely affirming
shared values, but we are also opening ourselves to the idea that those values will
influence our beliefs and actions.
The Office is a highly acclaimed American comedy show on NBC that ran from
March 24, 2005 to May 16, 2013.The show consists of nine seasons. This series
depicts the ongoing lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of
the paper company known as Dunder Mifflin, which is completely fictional. There is no
studio audience or pre recorded laugh track, and there is only one camera to simulate a
real documentary.The Office features Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna
Fischer, B. J. Novak, Ed Helms, and James Spader on the main cast.At the beginning of
theseries, Michael Scott is the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, eventually replaced
by Andy Bernard in season eight of the show. Dwight Schrute, Pam Anderson,Kevin
Malone, and Angela Martin are all permanent characters who report to Michael and

Andy.These two are not the brightest bulbs in the box, and one has to wonder how they
got their jobs in the first place. One would be right in saying it appears that the others
take their jobs more seriously than these two. The characters appear to be generally
content with their boring lives. They always keep themselves entertained by poking fun
at each other or performing some crazy stunt or something. There never appears to be
a dull moment.
As someone who has worked in an office previously, I can say with a right
conscience that the Office, though exaggerated for dramatic and comedic effect, holds a
certain amount of coherence and fidelity to what it is like to work in a real office. The
work is boring and can very well be monotonous.. Especially in todays economy, we are
not guaranteed a job where we can do what we enjoy.Some of us are just not
particularly talented and have to opt for a career that could barely be considered skilled
labor. Many people are okay with a boring and monotonous job,myself included.
Regardless of the nature of the work in an office,maintaining relationships with the
people in your branch is important. Its also important to have fun and joke around with
these people so you don't go crazy from the monotonous work of the day. Working a
paper company can't exactly be too invigorating in and of itself. Furthermore, the
supervisor I worked with reminded me a lot of Michael and Andy, not in a bad way, but
he was just really cool and didnt take the job too seriously. He knew when to be serious
and when to goof around. Hewuldometimes just sit in his office and do something on his
computer or just talk to people about random things. The Office could be considered the
idealized version of an office based work environment

The Office is a great showcase of the narrative paradigm theory because the
show is composed of stories that take place in one episode, as well as stories that take
place over the course of several episodes. The show does well of implementing and
resolving plots within the individual episodes, as well as continuing with and remaining
true to the main overarching narratives of each season. This correlates well with the
narrative of reality because each of our lives is like a sub plot that is at some point
actualized and then completed contributing to and retaining fidelity in the continual
overarching narrative that is the fallen existence of man and the working toward
salvation and redemption in the end.
The show is known for its single character close up camera shots where the
characters convey their individual narratives before returning to the main narrative. This
is done so each character involved in the plot or subplot can convey their personal
narrative through a compelling story to convince the viewer that their narrative is
coherent and containing fidelity or to make better sense of something appearing out of
the ordinary in the story arc.
Because this is a comedy, there are times where a character or group of
characters will devise plans to mess with another character. Michael, Andy, and Jim
seem to be the biggest culprits of making things up. However, the character is so often
devoted to making the other character believe something is true . that they maintain
coherence and fidelity in their story from the desire to have a laugh. There Often times
domino effects where others adopt anothers narrative as their own,and eventually it
attributes itself to and becomes part of the sharednarritive. For instance, in one episode
in season nine entitled Andys Ancestry, a character named Nellie is instructed to

research Andy's family tree. Nellie and Andy have a ongoing feud from he previous
season where he lost his job temporarily due to anger management issues and she
took his place during that time. Nellie decides to manipulate the document and make it
appear as though Andy is distantly related to Michelle Obama. Fictionally Michelle
Obama recently claimed that she had white ancestors, which is why he believed this
news. Andy proudly proclaims his new found ancestry to the entire branch. Nellie
doesnt tell anyone that she forged the document, and so everyone slowly but surely
adopts this as being true. Then, a few assume that because of his distant bloodline
connection to Michelle Obama that his ancestors were slave owners. Eventually
everyone adopts this as the coherent narrative that makes them realize how they feel
like slaves in their place of work. It didnt help his case that his mother said they were
actually slave traders when he called her. This goes on to be a part of the main story arc
for several episodes afterward.
To ensue hilarity but to further prove the importance of coherence and fidelity in a
personal narrative there are many times when a characters story lacks these things and
therefore is not truly narrative. At the beginning of an episode, for instance, Kevin
explains that he saved a turtle from the side of the road with a cracked shell. He claimed
make a paper mache shell and talked for about three minutes about how he said this
turtle by doing so. Then, seconds before the completion of the cut, he sgares that he
actually found out the turtle was dead upon completion of the new shell. He had
crushed it. In another instance, Dwight haas a conversation with a new hire at the office
named Chris. He says something about needing to see a list of Dwights clients for
another department, and Dwight assumes that means Chris wants to take his clients

and replace Dwight. He spends the whole rest of the episode ranting to the audience in
an incoherent fashion and tries to get chris fired for trying to supposedly take his clients.
Dwight seems to live in his own world separate from everyone else where everything is
logical simply because he says so, and no one ever believes what he says because he
remains coherent with reality, and others just cant relate with him.
There is one symbol The Office contains that pretty much sum up the dominant
narrative of the show. The first of these is the chore wheel. Pam creates a wheel full of
chores everyone is supposed to spin to receive a chore for the week, Everyone grows
tired of this, so the wheel is replaced with another that contains prizes. tis wheel
exemplifies the narrative of how the employees at Dunder Mifflin just want to have fun.
they need a way to escape their boring, average lives just like some of the viewers
might who watch the show.
To understand and explore the concept of these individual narratives, as well as
to understand some of the overarching narrative, fifteen episodes of the Office were
watched for this assignment. Three episodes were selected from each of thje following
seasons- season one, season three, season five, season eight, and season nine. The
first episode watched in each season was chosen randomly, but the following two from
each respective season were simply the two episodes after the randomly chosen
episode. This was done to understand overarching narratives as well as to be exposed
to several different individual narratives, which wouldnt have been possible if say fifteen
consecutive episodes were watched in a single season of The Office.
So, The Office exemplifies the concept of Narrative Paradigm well, and even
depicts what a bad narrative looks like. It shows how individual narrative effects, or

sometimes doesnt, effect the dominant narrative and how the dominant narrative
affects the individual characters in the show.Rationality is so often derived from a
compelling story sometimes becoming a shared narrative even if that narrative lacks
truth. One cannot separate any form of communication from narrative storytelling.