Literature offers a vast amount of insight into our world and how we interact in it. For thousands of years, humanity has bartered stories amongst itself. Great tales of gods and men reverberate throughout every culture and epoch. Fantastical events, tragedies, heroics, comedies; all so enticing and poetic. Yet, they lack our essence of humanity. Sure, they have some truths buried within them, but these stories are of how we want the world to be, not how it actually is. I find myself to be vastly more interested in texts that unveil some facet of ourselves. How we interact with one another, our world around us and with ourselves. And do so in such a way that strips away my defenses and strikes its message somewhere unnerving, yet …show more content…
Motives behind a character are convoluted and the relations to their past and to other characters are intricate and interwoven. Causality is also strongly emphasized so character’s actions and ethical choices drive the narrative, which detours quite far from the common plot-oriented devices of the traditional novel. In fact, Realism had done away with the common plot structure, that being the definitive arc of events, such as a climax and resolution, for that kind of symmetrical pattern of happenings is not present in the real world.
The matter of ethics and its relation to social interaction dominates this genre. Queries of morality and ideology present themselves through works of realism and demand the reader to put these writings in to the context of their own lives. Realism allowed authors to create works that portrayed what the saw in the world and retell those accounts in an accurate form. These writings also told their stories with little ethical judgement from the narrator, and rather, left that reasoning to the reader. The purpose, as it seems, of the narrative itself is to objectively retell accounts and events that the writer seems to be invested in, and theses writings carry a tone more akin to journalism than the common novel archetype. Though, even with the lack of absolute moral critique present in the text, Realism relied heavily on the social strife of the
Literature is used in English to portray themes and teach the readers morals. Fahrenheit 451 illustrates how one should appreciate the education and resources available to them as it may not always be around. A Raisin in the Sun shows how dreams may be deferred, but they will never die. Of Mice and Men exhibits idealized friendship and the impossibility of the American dream. The Crucible depicts that madness will emerge in society if no one is held accountable for their actions. Money can’t buy happiness is a
Literature; it has compelled us, entertained us, educated us, and drove us to madness. It has served as life instruction, by using the characters as the lesson plan. It is sometimes blunt, sometimes ugly, and in Truman Capote’s case, is so gruesome that we do not dare forget it.
For decades, writing has been a way for authors to create byproducts of themselves and portray their alike qualities within what the outside world would like to consider fictional characters. It’s not uncommon to the writing world of novels and prestigious narratives – take Stephen King for example: although he didn’t hide his motives as he used his original name in “Songs of Susannah,” he introduced himself into the plot nonetheless, creating a familiar atmosphere where realism was incorporated into a dream. When reading short stories like ‘Red Cranes’ by Jacey Choy and ‘The Firefly Hunt’ by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, the audience can only be led to imagine if the authors have placed themselves in a position to empathize with their creations.
Throughout this course, I have discovered that literature is more than just words being brought together by an author to form an emotionally charged story. Literature provides an engaging outlet into an imaginary realm to its audience. As the reader is captivated by the story, poem or play, a, emotional connection is established.
Literature is known to have a profound impact on people. It can influence their attitudes, behaviours, beliefs and ultimately, their decision-making process. Reading about the thoughts and stories of other people helps one make moral decisions because it develops one's sense of empathy and it makes one learn more about the world, making them a better person in the end.
Throughout history, literature has served as a prominent tool in the examination of social values, ideas, and dreams. In addition, literature has provided a vital connection between historical, social, and political events. Through the incorporation of religious principles and philosophies, writers have discovered a way to portray different time periods, characters, feelings, and most importantly God.
Realism is also shown in the fact that “complex ethical choices are often the subject,” and the story relies on the lead role (Campbell).
Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to
In an age where the printed novel has been somewhat on the decline, and the necessity of readable fiction has almost faded into obscurity. I believe that literature still harbours a crucial part within our society; from the very foundations of most theatrical adaptations, to preserving the culture and encapsulating the feelings of generations past. In this case literature cements itself as one of the most decisive elements of our civilisation, and combining it with history makes it become a testament to who we are as people, as well as the conservation of both our progression and degradation. I have always enjoyed reading literature, from reading J.R.R Tolkien’s classic ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy within my childhood, to perhaps more sophisticated,
Though many people nowadays disregard the usefulness of literature in modern society I belong to the opposite sect of folk. Reading and literature is more than just words and writeing, its ways for the dead to speak and advise those to come through understanding of common feelings. Whether the author meant to mean something through metaphor or more literally is not important, what is important is that us as the readers are able to communicate and interpret needed information from the subject and author. Something that I sometimes think is lacking in todays society is not just this communictation but understanding. Furthermore reading it gives us a way to understand and invest in lives other than ourselves. Secondly reading and understanding what we read allows us to feel empathetic towards the subject thus allowing us to share our own story of feeling and ideas. This is
Literature is susceptible to misconception. At times, the presentation of content, enticing details, and storyline take away from the morals and ideas being presented in a piece of text. Most times, as a result of focusing on the distracting elements of a novel, audiences fail to recognize the deeper meaning or purpose of why the author choses to include certain sections of a novel. A book’s intention is to accurately express an author’s thoughts, but, many times, the delivery of unfamiliar content results in fear and a lack of understanding from the reader.
Quality literature is important to society’s functionality. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 society’s right to have quality literature is taken away. In Joe Fassler’s “How Literature Inspires Empathy” spoken by Alaa Al Aswany, the positive impact of quality literature is displayed. Literature, or the lack thereof, has the ability to drastically change the way a reader views the world.
There are different forms and examples of exemplary and classic literature which have been deemed as significant works that are highly esteemed worldwide. These examples of literature would awe the world with how much literary skill they entailed when they were composed and written: attention to details as to formation of characters, the most crafty of plots, the most eloquent speeches and lines, the most astounding of twists of scenes, and most of all, the most universal and meaningful of themes. The theme of any literary work is what makes it great as it should be able to encompass the immense diversity of the world and as it would be able to transcend the boundaries of religion, age, race, gender, etc. Two examples of this great and
Indeed, the best works of literature are those which are of relevance to our lives today. Through their relevance, these novels continue to persist and endure on. Through their relevance, we can better comprehend the messages, the themes, and the ideas that are imbued in them. Rather than literature being contradictory and in conflict with the truth and unpleasant reality of daily life, it becomes a weapon through which we can be educated about the existential crises facing our world today. In fact, the statement above could not be more far and distant from the reality of literature today. It is fatally flawed. Literature, whilst at the surface, seems whimsical and amusing is, at its very core, a medium through which we are enlightened
Why would an author write a detailed work of a character stuck confronting a moral dilemma, rather than that of an imaginary-like story? Industrialization had many cons, but started the evolution towards the Realistic Era in literature. Realism influenced many authors’ styles of writing in the span of the era, because of the honesty it generated. To name a Realist author: Willa Cather, who wrote “A Wagner Matinee” focused on a different type of Realism, Regionalism. The literature of the Realistic Era emphasized the world's problems at the time through the characters’ thoughts and feelings.