Will Smith is the protagonist of his memoir. The Importance of Words and Stories is central to Smith’s book and life; he rises to fame thanks to his way with words as an MC, and the power of stories draws him to acting and shapes the way he sees his life. He structures the book around the hero’s journey, an influential narrative arc that he learns about from Steven Spielberg. Over the course of the memoir, he goes on two journeys: one internal, the journey to see himself as brave, and one external, the journey to become the world’s biggest movie star and a great father.

In the opening chapters of the memoir, two key events happen that make him feel like a coward. The first is that he sees his father beat his mother, and he does not intervene. The second is that he sees a young girl go into the home of a known sex offender, and he does not tell any adults because he is afraid of retribution from the sex offender. These events lead him to see himself as a coward. Smith struggles with this belief until he completes his inner journey of self-discovery.