Conclusion: The Genre is the Message

Abstract

In an assessment of President Barack Obama’s performance one year after he took office, Junot Diaz emphasizes the importance of story in strategies of self-representation. “A President can have all the vision in the world, be an extraordinary orator and a superb politician, have courage and foresight and a willingness to make painful choices, have a bold progressive plan for his nation,” Diaz writes, “but none of these things will matter a wit if the President cannot couch his vision, his policies, his courage, his will, his plan in the idiom of story.” He goes on to conclude that “ideas are wonderful things, but unless they’re couched in a good story they can do nothing.”¹

A man cannot withstand a story, even if the man is remarkable and the story is simple. The story always wins.

—Junot Diaz