The Shepherd’s Story

Any momentous story is best passed on by someone who witnessed the events. In the “Nativity Story,” the shepherds, after following the angels’ words, are present during the birth of Christ. After seeing Jesus, the shepherds, “Spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.” These shepherds are able to spread their story just as like many other characters in literature. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Nick to tell the story of Gatsby. Nick provides the reader with an in depth account of Gatsby’s life and death, just as the shepherds were able to share the story of Christ’s birth. Shakespeare uses Horatio as the shepherd to tell the story of Hamlet. As Hamlet requests in his final words, “If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart…tell my story” (V. ii.). Horatio was one of the only living witnesses to these events, just as Huck was in the battle between the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords. It is no mistake that Mark Twain called this family the Shepherdsons, and Huck is left to tell the story of the large battle where most of the members in the two families died. The use of witnesses to symbolize and allude to shepherds in the Bible is performed by many authors.

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