Literature is culture; it is history; it is life lessons. Anne Sexton once said, “Poetry should be a shock to the senses. It should also hurt.” Literature can teach us things about the past that we would have never known otherwise. It allows people to look into cultures that they would not be able to experience if these short stories and poems had never been written. It teaches and influences people to live life to the fullest, and to not worry about what other people think.
I learned through the readings in this course that I really do not make a strong connection with literature. Yes, it is a great way to experience the life of others, and hear stories from other people, and learn about the culture of past generations, but I just am not much of a reader or a writer. I would much rather sit down and watch a movie about the past than read about it. With that being said, I believe whether one likes it or not he or she should have to study literature because it can really change ones life, and that is why the course is required.
History and literature are woven together. The history that is shown throughout literature taught me what went on during the past couple of hundred years. History is not all about politics and who did what, when, where, and why. History tells us about the people of their time. Studying literature will help us to better understand why things happened the way they did and will help us to better prepare for things to come. I learned new things about times of poverty during the great depression. This was a time when the stock market crashed and people lost everything they had. I also learned that Sylvia Plath was the first person to win the Pulitzer Prize after death. Literature described events and circumst...
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...terature teaches us new ways to communicate with one another. If one can communicate strongly with others than he or she is considered the have the main tool of governance. It will allow us to recognize and use literary devices to write an important speech that we will give to our boss one day, or maybe a speech to become a political leader.
Literature has really taught me about myself in several ways. Without literature this world would not have near as much knowledge about how it has evolved. It teaches us so much about ourselves and what our lives mean. After studying literature I can really see more about myself and how I feel about different aspects of life. It really opens my mind up to a new world. Without literature I would not have been able to search deep down and really find out who I am. Every time I read a story I find out something new about myself.
Literature has long been an important part of human life. We express our feelings with ink and paper; we spill out our souls on dried wood pulp. Writing has been a form of release and enjoyment since the beginning of written language. You can tell a story, make yourself a hero. You can live out all your fantasies!
Literature throughout history has evolved due to events occurring during those times. It has changed in a deductive fashion going from creator to creation. In the early times Native Americans wrote myths of how the world had been created, next Puritans wrote of the drama in their communities and how they affected with each other, finally, transcendentalism focused on a singular person's ideas and point of view. It is important to be able to understand all levels of life from broad ideas to a singular person. Understanding not only how the world works but also how to get along with others and who you are as a person is crucial in this society. Literature from many time periods all attribute to these subjects. Literature
In conclusion, we see that the nature of printed literature has changed nowadays as well as the way of thinking. We are on the road of losing our concentration, awareness and serious thinking abilities. We are faced with such negative effects as cyber bullying and Internet manipulations. I think it is not the direction we should move on.
I began to read not out of entertainment but out of curiosity, for in each new book I discovered an element of real life. It is possible that I will learn more about society through literature than I ever will through personal experience. Having lived a safe, relatively sheltered life for only seventeen years, I don’t have much to offer in regards to worldly wisdom. Reading has opened doors to situations I will never encounter myself, giving me a better understanding of others and their situations. Through books, I’ve escaped from slavery, been tried for murder, and lived through the Cambodian genocide. I’ve been an immigrant, permanently disabled, and faced World War II death camps. Without books, I would be a significantly more close-minded person. My perception of the world has been more significantly impacted by the experiences I've gained through literature than those I've gained
History is the story and knowledge of the past. There are individuals that are interested by history and wish to study it by learning more. It is very informative to know what has happened in the past for self-knowledge. An individual cannot be naïve to the past including but not limited to how literature came to. One can understand literature more when they understand the time period the author wrote during and the way they wrote. There are several time periods different authors have been through with each period having specific beliefs. Romanticism is the time period that interests me the most; it was a time during the eighteenth century and focused on nature along with the individual’s expression of imagination and emotion.
By appreciating literature, one not only receives a wonderful story but is also given the chance to grow with the characters and learn
From reading Alice in Wonderland to now, I have grown to appreciate literature much more. At the beginning of the year, I read purely because it was assigned for me to read, and I only read for important events and story plots. When reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time, I missed everything that Lewis Carroll was trying to convey to the reader. I had no idea that he had written Alice in Wonderland with the intention of preparing children for the real world. I thought it was just a story full of random events and nonsense, but after my realization of a deeper meaning, I grew to appreciate his efforts. From then on from Beowulf to the Fairie Queene, I have learned to see literary works as more than just stories but a...
Books help readers boost their imagination and creativity. Every book or novel one read has an enormous impact on his/her life. Books are sources which leads us to become deep thinkers. Two novels which had an immense impact in my life are the novels “A Picture Book of Helen Keller” by David Adler and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. One book that I read which had a massive impact in my life is “A Picture Book of Helen Keller” by David Adler, it’s about Helen Keller and the struggles she faced.
Like any true art form, literature is able to elicit intense emotion, potently address social issues, and uncover revelations about the human condition, and this is exactly what I love about it. It offers insight into important morals, human ideals and contemporary issues in society in a stimulating yet entertaining way. It goes without saying that language is a necessary vehicle to literature; English is not only important and relevant in modern life, but it is also a fascinating language that has a rich and vast vocabulary, which is why I've developed such an interest in the power and origins of language. I feel that that studying English at university level would allow me to gain a better understanding of literature in its spatial and temporal context.
One way that literature reflects history is by educating people about past events. An example of how literature demonstrates the history of time it is was created would be from Elie Wiesel’s book named Night. This book is set in the time period of the Holocaust and does a significant job of illustrating what life might have been like for a Jew in a concentration camp. The reasoning behind why someone would want to remind people of this terrible time, would be so that no one forgets about all of the deaths taken by this dark age in Germany. Also to educate
My view of Literature is that it is the soul to the imagination. I may be mistaken, but that is the beauty of literary words; there is no truth, no right nor wrong in them, yet they hold just about everything to learn on life. Miss Judy Brown, my form four English teacher, has really inspired me in indispensible ways. She is definitely one in a billion.
Why read literature? To many of us, such a question seems as strange as asking “why breathe?” as literature has been part of our life, family, school, and community for as long as we can remember. Of course, there are those who argue that what today’s students need is preparation for the “real world,” but in the push for practical preparedness we sometimes overlook the importance of educating students’ imaginations. Literature offers windows to worlds outside students’ experience as well as mirrors onto the world they already know. Literature also prepares students for the personal challenges and moral dilemmas they are likely to face. We interpret the world constantly in all our experiences every day, so interpreting literature provides a general model for interpretation. Exploring a literary text gives the opportunity to think about various reasons for actions, for how people act and think and react to others. Reading offers us the possibility to do this independently of our personal experiences. It concerns somebody else: fictive persons in a fictive world.
Literature also gives us glimpses of much earlier ages. These glimpses take our imaginations back to the roots of our culture, in some instances. The study of Literature, through our history, enhances our understanding of our modern world.
Literature has had a major impact on society, and, also our history. Literature has reformed and shaped civilizations, changed political systems, and has exposed injustices (3). Our literature has changed and developed as we have, keeping up with our society. “...literature is crucial for the advancement of society (3).” With literary works, we can convince others to view things a certain way, share our opinions, and more. Literature is greatly intertwined with our society and everyday lives, and they would not be the same without it. Literature plays an irreplaceable role in our
“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become,” said C.S. Lewis, noted author. This quote, to me, is the most appropriate description of the importance of literature in our lives. Literature reminds us of stories, epics, sacred scriptures and classical works of the ancient and modern times, in which the book To Kill a Mockingbird clearly does. Literature is defined as the body of written works of a language, period or culture, produced by scholars and researchers, specialized in a given field. Why is literature important? Well, let’s see as stated in the quotation by C.S. Lewis, literature not only describes reality but also adds to it. Yes, literature is not merely a depiction of reality; it is rather a value-addition. Literary works are portrayals of the thinking patterns and social norms prevalent in society. They are an illustration of the different facets of common man's life. Literary works serve as a food for thought and a tonic for imagination and creativity. Exposing an individual to good literary works, is equivalent to providing him/her with the finest of educational opportunities. On the other hand, the lack of exposure to literary works is equal to depriving an individual from an opportunity to grow as an individual. To Kill a Mockingbird provides its readers with the ‘finest of educational opportunities’ and that is why it is an important literary work. Harper Lee’s book is a powerful literary work because of the following literary devices employed: Setting, Allegory, and point of view. However before one can dissect the devices used, one must h...