Red Sky in the Morning

Patricia Hampl’s “Red Sky in the Morning” touches something deeper than just the profoundness of love. True, it is unexpected and therefore meaningful that she happened to stumble upon love that beautiful morning, but the essay is meant to portray something more. The adored woman in the story proclaims, “I could tell you stories” leaving that verb full of possibilities to hang in the air. The statement does not mean she is choosing not to tell Hampl her stories. The statement means, “I could tell you stories- if only stories could tell what I have in me to tell.”P18 The English language is constricting in a certain sense in that some experience are just too big, too full to explain. There are just some stories you can’t do justice to because you can’t express the full meaning behind the story with words. Hampl’s purpose in writing this is to show memories are only memories until we tell them, until we make them a reality to someone else by sharing them. Hampl didn’t realize at the time that a story was happening to her and by telling her story she would make it a reality to many others. It is important for us to tell our stories because by telling our stories we are making it possible for others to experience significant events otherwise unknown to them.