Summary:
Literatures are written about the author's experiences and/or the perception of the author about a certain matter in his life or the world. These may be truthful to the author for he or she can relate to such literature, but for other people this is not the matter. People around the world need hard facts and evidence in order to believe that something is in fact the truth.
"Literature must be an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the finding into a unity" argues a British writer and critic, Rebecca West. Using this definition of the expression "literature" it could be concluded that literature must be something that inspired the author or the author himself has experienced. According to the New Oxford Dictionary of English, literature is considered to be "written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit." This also concludes that in order for a piece of work to be considered "literature" it must be artistically advanced and of lasting quality and value to society. For example, the generations of today still thoroughly study the works of Alexander Solzhenitsyn although such literature was written in the 1940's it is still very popular and influential today. A marvelous piece of literature not only inspires a soul, but also opens the door into the truth behind the author's words. It is safe to say that the author "talks" his experience to the reader through his literature and inspires the reader in a way that only that reader can understand it. He provides the reader with a vivid reflection of his thoughts and experiences which you can follow.
"The Outsider" written by Albert Camus is a piece of literature depicting a young man who is completely indifferent about the world around him and does not manage to fit into the small yet strong reinforced walls of society because of his own perception of life. This character, Meursault, is an existentialist who is trying to find the meaning of life by isolating himself from society to further more understand the world. Even though many people may not realize it, the world in which we live in is up to the top filled with characters such as Meursault. Everyday, people try to find a deeper meaning to their lives and try to find out why they exist, and is there even a reason to get out bed every morning just to repeat the things that you have done the day before. They do this (find the meaning of life) by completely dedicating their lives to their religion, to their gods and simply to their beliefs, and hope that they have chosen the correct path that will lead them to the truth. People use the knowledge that they have acquired from people, books and the world around them to try to find the true meaning of life in this world. The way that literature fits into this is that it was the main source for this line of thinking to emerge in the individual. For instance after reading The Outsider I myself started thinking and pondering on the question of why are we here. Literature can pass on ways of thinking and sometimes enforce a certain line of thoughts upon us.
William Shakespeare's, "Macbeth" is the perfect portrayal of human greed and strive for power. Macbeth, the protagonist of the play, is willing to go above and beyond to achieve absolute power and recognition. The generations of today are even more power hungry, and there are daily disputes over wealth and money. William Shakespeare's, "Macbeth" is still relevant to our society since nothing has really changed, we still value money as the number one thing, and the amount of authority you have is still very influential, this proves that literature can tell the truth, and pass it on better than some other areas of knowledge such as TV which is most of the time at best the third persons point of view where as a book is written from the first or second point of view.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn's, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" describes the hardships of an innocent man's life in a prison camp. This novel illustrates the universal truth about the nature of man. According to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the truth about all humanity is that everybody strives for survival, dignity, individualism, comfort, and friendship. Although there are some obvious exceptions to such a statement, it is very accurate up to this day.
Literature is also one of the best and most efficient ways to spread propaganda through out the world. During the 1800's, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a book, Uncle Tom's Cabin that was used to condemn slavery in America. Today, Uncle Tom's Cabin is viewed as propaganda. Propaganda and literature have been close friends for quite a long time and have had many short and long term affairs in the past. Many people use propaganda in literature to enforce ways of thought onto the public. In the Soviet Union the leaders of the country such as Lenin and Stalin have used books in the schools which were written by authors upon their request to promote communism throughout the country.
Literature however has some major flaws, which are the bias that is present in the works of all authors. Bias is inevitable since usually the writer is expressing his thoughts or his past experiences. In many cases writers try to cover their bias up because the book may be too controversial to publish or at times done for the purposes of self preservation, since if the author of the book would be critiquing someone's laws, beliefs or ways of life. However they write this in a way that the reader would have to "read between the lines" and find out the real purpose of the book.
Some of the greatest written works of art were published hundreds of years ago, and these still affect the communities of today. The history of the world enriches literatures in a way that the generations of today are able to view the world as it existed years ago. Furthermore, the authors of previous generations are able to interpret the way of life and the mistakes of that generation into their literature so the people of today can still learn from such works. Since "history repeats itself" literature can be viewed as a time machine not only into the past but the future as well. On a smaller scale this could be shown in the stock market where previously written work is used to predict the next years price of a certain stock.
There are hundreds of different cultures all around the world, each with different perceptions, diverse viewpoints, and various ideas about human kind and the way the world works. Such perceptions are important to people all around the world in order to understand various cultures and people. Literature can put us into a different world and let us live the life as someone else thus enriching our mind and giving us a new point with that of which we can look at life. You can picture literature as the platforms on which you can stand on and view the earth form different points, and the more platforms you have the better view of the world you can obtain.
People of certain religions or organizations may view some literatures as being threatening and going against what they believe in, despite the fact that that piece of work has five out of five stars and has won the hearts of millions of people. But that fact could not be changes in anyway since we as humans have the right to a freedom of speech, and what you may find threatening may have a diverse meaning in a different culture. There are of course exceptions to this case when the author may publish his book solely for the purpose of offending a different race or clan in which case it would be simply inappropriate.
Literatures are written about the author's experiences and/or the perception of the author about a certain matter in his life or the world. These may be truthful to the author for he or she can relate to such literature, but for other people this is not the matter. People around the world need hard facts and evidence in order to believe that something is in fact the truth. If a literature, for example, states that everybody experiences miracles in one point or another of their life, that would not be true to someone who a) does not believe in miracles and b) someone who isn't superstitious. In order for the reader to believe that this is in fact the truth, he or she needs strong evidence that could be obtained from Arts. Literature can tell the truth and provide us with valid information but a good reader should be able to filter the real from the not, and to try to separate the bias from the truth.
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