Literature As A Person 's Life Essay

The debate of what literature is or how it should be defined is an ongoing battle even today. Many have expressed that literature should be well-written, worthy of study, and also stand the test of time, despite most of this criteria catering towards classical literature written by wealthy white men, while others believe this is all too subjective to work fairly. I personally believe that literature is at least three of the following: An embodiment of the human experience, a reflection of cultural perspective, and the relationship between author and reader.

Literacy memories and events began at a young age for me, and while teachers and family members all impacted my opinions and preferences for reading, every book I read and writing assignment given to me helped me form my literacy story and come to enjoy reading. Many literacy moments came from when I was young, like my mom or dad reading to me before bed or teachers reading to me at school their favorite books. All of these memories were accompanied by everyone saying how great reading was, and for a while I didn’t believe them. I had so many forced experiences with reading that it was almost painful for me to pick up a book. But as time went on and the reading I was still forced to do intensified, a better relationship with reading and writing

My memories are blurry. They are fragments of disjointed moments, without a linear narrative. I remember reading. It was in Mrs. Davidson first grade class. My reading proficiency skills were very poor, the English language still thick and unnatural on my tongue. While some of the other students took a Gifted class, I had to take a remedial course—English Learners (EL)— just so that I could hold onto the edge. I remember reading. I had a hard copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar in my little hands, reciting only the first page of the book from memory. The classroom was dark; the stream of sunlight filtering through the windows served as our only illumination. The rest of the words on the book looked like a mess of jumbled letters. I couldn’t make out anything other than the words “the” and “and.” I remember enthusiastically pointing out my “fluency” to my teacher, seemingly applauding my menial abilities: “The catpater at droo!” (The caterpillar ate through). In the first-grade, my free time was spread sporadically between watching The Little Mermaid, catching ugly black crickets and pretending that I was Sailor Moon, guardian of the galaxy. In the first grade, I was not at all concerned with words, literacy and books. In the first grade, I did not know the power that words hold. I did not know that books would change my life.

As a product of South Central Los Angeles the expectations bestowed upon me were less than remarkable. I grew up in a system of public schools where textbooks and classrooms where infested with graffiti and marker lines by students with no intention to learn. As a child growing up this kind of environment I did what I saw around me. Ignored my education and focused on making friends. Both my parents worked full time jobs so time spent with them was limited, I never cared much for reading or writing as a child, books where never a gift; more of a chore that was taking up time from my true interested. It was by these guidelines that I never saw the true magic behind literature until now a grown up.

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

The way I’ve gone through literature in the past and how I have gone through it now, have changed drastically. In fact, it has changed quite a bit. When I was once a wee lad, I used to read a lot. Mostly likely I would’ve read most of the time because my mother would make me read the same book over, and over, and over all the time. The book that we read together is Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. If I had my own copy today, I’d read it quite often on my own due to the current situation with my mother. This book had meant so much to me since I was a child because of the personal story that was created through the pages, the story of the bond between my mother and I. But, I believe that after reading

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] may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves, and an evasion of the visible and sensible world.

I viewed reading as a chore, was often unenthused, and would mostly annotate on the overarching themes without gathering any meaning from them. Books were merely a series of words printed on paper. This school year, however, I began to understand the allure reading has to offer. I have grown to appreciate reading and the insights a book can offer. When reading our numerous texts, I was able to live vicariously through the characters of the books and relate aspects of their lives to my own. Because all of the books from English I pertain to coming of age, I was able to not only learn about maturation as a process, but understand how it pertains to my own life. Through protagonists such as Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye or Esperanza from The House on Mango Street, I learned about my “misguided desire to preserve childhood innocence” and to empower feminism similar to Holden and Esperanza respectively (Heart of Gold, Raghuram). Gradually, I have finally developed the ability to relate to novels and its characters amidst writing my own story.Whether it be thematic elements or the details of a case I am working on, I have become more observant to even the most trivial details. Now when I read, I not only look at the themes, motifs, and symbols, but also repeated phrases or situations that parallel each others as well as the symbolic meaning behind some ambiguous phrases or scenes. Reading now, in contrast to last summer, is a

It may be cliché, but books have always held a spot close to my heart. When I was three I had a book called Bitsy Witch that went wherever I did. When I was seven, my mom read a chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone every night. In middle school, I worked my way through the entire children’s section at my local library. In high school, I took every English class offered, and when I entered college I to compromise with my family that I would also pursue a pre-professional program. My time outside of class was spent on my pre-professional degree until, my senior year in college. I took two classes that focused on children’s and young adult texts. Before those classes, I hadn’t realized that specializing in Children’s literature was

When a text is first being dissected it is important to walk in to the situation prepared. To be prepared you must go into the situation equipped with your own interpretation as to what constitutes literature. The definition of literature isn’t very concise. Like art the definition of literature can vary from one individual to another and before studying these subjects the audience should establish their own definition so that they can look for themes and symbols in the piece. In my opinion I believe that literature should be defined as any fictitious work that implements symbols, and other literary devices, to convey different themes and messages below the surface of the text. With this interpretation of literature I think that its purpose is to give the audience insight into the lives of others and make statements about our society. When readers study literature in this manner they are able to view our society from an outside perspective and

One of the most important aspects of teaching literature to adolescents is helping them understand how individual stories can relate to their lives specifically. More and more, the stigma that literature is a lofty abstract that has no connection to the day-to-day lives creeps into schools. This stigma creates an environment where apathy flourishes and care disappears. As teachers, the number one goal today, seems to be first getting students to care about reading. No matter how dynamic or revolutionary a teacher's methods or philosophies are, if a student does not care, that student will not learn. So, when looking for possible novels that one would use in the classroom, one main question must always be asked; how will this novel be

One of my earliest memories as a child was of my father’s imposing dark-oak bookcase, stocked full of tomes far bigger than my young mind could comprehend. The case loomed over the living room of my childhood home, so many more of my memories have that tower of knowledge and dust as an intimidating backdrop. However, the bookcase always felt much safer when my father was around. With him, it turned into a place of exploration, with me asking my father what “this and that book are,” “what are they about,” “are they good.” So from a young age I built a connection between literature and my father. He was the one I went to time and time again as my reading skills developed, impatiently blurting out to him what happens in my short picture books

There is no one definition of literature. Nothing about this term—which is so vital to our lives—can be placed into that black and white corner that this question endeavors to force it into. What is literature? What is the feeling of experiencing life through another set of eyes? What is it like having your very soul poured out and sorted out into words on a page? What is that feeling? Traditionally, when I contemplate literature, I recall the beloved classics of William Shakespeare or Jane Austen. Yet the term seems to encompass more than the books or poetry we read in school. So, what is literature? How can we define something so vast and ever expanding? In a way, literature can be anything the reader wills it to be. Literature is an

According to The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia literature is, “Words set apart in some way from ordinary everyday communication. In the ancient oral traditions, before stories and poems were written down, literature had a mainly public function - mythic and religious. As literary works came to be preserved in writing, and, eventually, printed, their role became more private, serving as a vehicle for the exploration and expression of emotion and the human situation.” Literature enables us to develop our minds analytically and promotes open minds. We can see the world through the eyes of different writers from different cultures and in turn learn to better handle certain scenarios in our own lives. It allows the reader to escape to a