What's the Role of Storytelling?

There's a wonderful passage in the book. Bodhi realizes that there were kids who would have known at the time that Mr. Block and Talia had a kind of relationship, yet nobody spoke up. And then you tell this story about fireflies, which I think really intersects with this question of why don't people say the things that are on their mind, even if they're unwelcome? It also seems like you're telling us something or showing us something about storytelling.