The Great Literary Works : I Am Never Alone

In the words of one critic, superior works of literature should invoke a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘pleasure’ as “joyful amusement”, while 'disquietude’ is defined as “anxiety”. Although these words seem to oppose each other, they both occur in frequently and simultaneously in every person’s life. Emotions caused by people and circumstances in one’s life allow these feelings of pleasure and disquietude to overlap. Similarly, an inclusion of both elements in a literary work result in this feeling of “healthy confusion” for the reader. A lot of novels entertain the reader with

Pathos is a useful strategy that appeals to the reader’s emotional side and is presented more strongly by Clifford and Hardy in comparison to Gladwell, to convince

There are many ways to interpret a book, one can read it as a character’s adventure, a conflict of ideas or emotions, or a story. For myself, I read the books, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville, in an ironic sense; and while doing this, I noticed that both books showed an intuitive sense of sociology. Furthermore, what mattered most by reading the books ironically is that it is easy to see the outcome of a situation which is pleasing to be conscious of. It is easy to see the outcome of a situation because when one is paying attention to a character, one’s attention is toward a character, except when one’s attention is on an entire situation, one’s attention is on the flow of events and then the

There are many perspectives and definitions on art, an abstract topic. In the world of books, nothing is considered art unless the novel can engage the readers through the author's use of emotions and stylistic syntax. Using Groen's essay “Books Still Win” tragic realism is seen in Joshua Ferris' novel “Then We Came to the End.” Tragic realism is evident in Ferris' novel through the fact there is both good and bad within a person, that life improves with struggles and that sadness is always evident.

Like, Genres of discourse and the definition of literature, written by Gerard Steen, which suggests that literature “… is characterized by the domain value ‘artistic,’ the content value ‘fictional,’ and the functional value ‘positively affective,’ or simply ‘divertive’” (115). Describing literature as fictional work is the only fitting part of the definition because everything else simply does not work. For example, having the domain value be one of the arts needs to be excluded because defining literature is a task in itself. Adding another controversial term, like art, weakens the definition. Furthermore, needing literature to be positively affective, or in other words, elicit a positive emotional reaction from the reader, is not appropriate. This is due to the fact that, on occasion, a book does not draw a positive reaction in the reader. In some instances, a book is simply read to entertain the audience, without them experiencing happiness, joy, or amusement. For example, many people would agree that upon reading through the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy in Hamlet, one did not experience happiness nor pleasure, yet this does not lessen the fact that the play is considered literature. Finally, reading through Their Eyes Were Watching God and the life full of heartache and obstacles the protagonist, Janie, lived through, one also does not experience any remote feeling of delight nor enjoyment. People did not finish the book feeling pleased knowing Janie ended up killing the love of her life, and then, return to the same town she ran away from, which most likely reminds her of the hell she lived with her first husband. As a consequence, the definition proposed by Steen would fail to describe with accuracy what literature

In the article “Why Literature Matters,” Dana Gioia discusses about how interest displayed in the arts has declined, especially in literature. Gioia uses a variety of different literary tools to create a compelling argument including appealing to the reader’s emotion, using facts and statistics, and creating a “call to action”. Throughout the whole essay, Gioia skillfully plays with the reader’s emotions to convince them. Gioia brings out aspects such as the consequences of the situation.

One of the factors that give an outstanding book its place is the connection that the author builds between the reader and the characters of the story. This is what happens in the book Delirium by Lauren Oliver. She created this characters that started to grow with the reader. While living in a society that believes that love is a disease, the characters need to find a way to run out into The Wilds and start living a new life filled with love. Throughout the book it can be noticed the way the main character changes her mind over various things, the importance of character development, thoughts exchanged between the reader and the character, and how the ending of the book was a total shock compared to the beginning.

It’s no surprise that books 1984 and A Thousand Splendid Suns have each graced the New York Times bestsellers’ list. Both books have a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude, which keep the reader enagaged and eager to find out what happens next. Often times the source of this healthy mix of happy and sad, is the characters’ relationships and overall well-being. Great authors do an excellent job of injecting pathos into their novels to evoke feelings of pity or anxiety in the reader.

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

What is the definition of a good novel? Opinions on this question may differ, but there are many things that good novels have in common. Most importantly, the reader must enjoy the novel. When I use the word enjoy, I don’t necessarily mean that it should make the reader ‘happy’ or ‘joyful’. The novel should give the reader a valuable or worthwhile experience. Many good novels often address topics that relate to our own reality. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, one of the main focuses is on power and corruption.

Throughout the span of recorded human history, there are countless works of literature written by authors who engraved their thoughts and feelings on paper, hoping to impact the world through the art of writing. While time cast many of these works into the forgotten abyss of irrelevance, a select few pieces of literature managed to stand the test of time, becoming “great books.” Highly regarded by modern literary critics, these lasting pieces form the benchmark in the study of literature. However, an important question must be raised when discussing these “great books.” What makes a book “great,” that is, what qualities of a piece of literature make it significant to modern societies

Contrary to what Atwood articulates, fictional writing has been viewed as a way of writing that grants freedom to the writer. The writer can end the story with suspense, ending at just that point that a character is phased with a huge obstacle or immense passion (Nodelman, 1). This is believed to set the reader up into believing that overcoming such obstacles in real life brings about immense rewards and therefore such kind of writing is always motivational to the reader. This is a point of view that Atwood is quick to rubbish by pointing out that all other endings that are not ‘happy endings’ in fiction are delusionary. “Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, either deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality” (Atwood, 3).

My relationship with literature goes way back to the first time I read a chapter book seriously. I believe it started with one special chapter book that my appreciation for a good book began. Parvana’s journey by Deborah Ellis was my special extraordinary pull to literature. This book was a breathtaking vivid journey for me. It was not a simple book. It was a book that placed you in the story. A book that brought you soulfully into the destination and places the main character travels through. A book where you feel like the main character yourself and experience the same emotions. I still remember a vivid moment the book projected for me. The moment when a girl who believed she was forever safe amidst landmines gets blown to pieces was a memorable image i still remember. Not because I particularly enjoy blowing people. But the emotional connection the book created for me to the character really hit me when character gets killed descriptively. It was one of those

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

Death and romance are not only prevalent and important themes in contemporary young adult fiction but in literature in general; from Shakespearian plays to poetry to classic novels we see a constant recurrence of these themes. Authors of all genres use these themes as functional devices in their works to powerfully manipulate the reader’s emotions. The ways in which they are presented may have changed as literature has changed, the general idea, discussion and reaction by readers has not. This therefore makes for a reason as to why the genre is worthy of study; in order to see how the authors of this