Final answer:
Modern societies often structure their lives around narratives as a means to understand changes brought on by industrialization, technology, and shifting social dynamics. This narrative framework has been recognized by authors and sociologists alike as a significant component of both historical and contemporary social organization. Storytelling is deeply ingrained in societal structures and personal identities.
Step-by-step explanation:
People living in modern societies have increasingly begun to organize their lives around narratives that offer a framework to understand and navigate the rapidly changing world. This phenomenon coincides with historical periods of significant societal transformation, like the rise of industrialization, urbanization, and mass production during the late nineteenth century. During these periods, the lives of individuals were affected by numerous factors, including Western expansion, the advent of dramatic new technologies, and the rise of big businesses. Authors from this era used their literary works as a lens to interpret and represent these shifts within American society.
The development of narrative as a central organizing principle in individuals' lives can also be traced back to the emergence of stability and organized government in the transition from nomadic to sedentary societies. This underlying pattern of storytelling has always played an essential role in the way humans understand and communicate their experiences. It is not just a trait of writers but is embedded in daily social interactions, as we narrate our own experiences to others, often with an intended reaction or result.
As societies progressed, sociologists and anthropologists recognized that the features of modernity such as mass media and wage labor have shaped the lives of people beyond traditionally industrial or postindustrial settings. From the rise of experimental communities in the early nineteenth century to the dramaturgical analysis proposed by Erving Goffman, society has often been viewed through the prism of human interaction and the creation of shared realities.