The first story that I chose on StoryCorps was “The Things That Go Left Unsaid: Remembering A Son and Brother — The First U.S. Soldier Killed in Afghanistan”. I felt the need to listen to this story because of the recent events that have played out with our botched pull-out of the terrorist-ridden country. Throughout the story, I couldn’t help but to think about the last 13 American Heros killed in Afghanistan while the family of the first Hero killed spoke about their experience. The audio story began by a narrator laying the setting of the story and giving the audience some background information. As the listener will notice, there is no music playing for most of the story. I think this symbolizes the importance of the topic being discussed. After the family of Hero tells their personal story, they go into pointing out a lesson about people dying young. This is where a slow paced tune comes in and plays while the speaker finishes up their thoughts. Finally, the creator leaves the audience with the slow paced audio playing to finalize the feeling being portrayed, which is sadness but at the same time hopefulness. The quality of the audio was fine. I actually liked that the creator kept the part where one of the speakers got choked up on emotion because it helped set the mood.
The second story that I chose on StoryCorps was “‘I Have These Dreams Where I Go Back’: Dad and Daughter Mourn a Syria They Once Knew”. I chose this story because of the changing times that are taking place in America right now. The Father, Daughter duo tackle how their home country has changed in direct response to the terrible wars that have taken place there over the years. The father, who was born and raised in Syria took his daughter to meet various family members for the first time. When the plane lands, she immediately feels at home. As the wars begin to take place, the duo can no longer visit their home country and begin to mourn their home. The father recalls how so much that he remembers from his childhood has been destroyed because of the war. Throughout the story, there is a very faint background tune. I think this is because the creator really wanted their audience to focus on the words being spoken rather than a song in the background. Sometimes background music can take away from the importance of one’s words. If you’ll notice, the pace was rather slow throughout and I would contribute this to the feeling of the story. This was a rather sad story so therefore the pace will reflect that to set the mood. The quality of the sound was crisp and clear. I appreciated the level of volume for the background music because it allowed the speakers to sound more crisp, clear and got their point across.