Understanding Literature In Paul Achebe's Things Fall Apart

The way that I understand literature is that it has the ability to enrich the reality that we are in. Literature makes our reality better than what it actually is, and even if it tried, it could not do it in a simple manner. Literature augments the things we do to appease our wants in life. Because literature does all of these great and marvelous things, it stimulates our dull and bitter lives. It is imperative for us to study timeless pieces of work from great authors in our past because they treat us to a better comprehension of love, hate, compassion, living, death, war, sacrifice, humanism, and even the truth of what life is. Those men and women give us the ability to attain a different perspective of life and what it means to live. Literature gives us the knowledge and allows us to grasp what language is, and just how powerful it can be. As a person that has great love and compassion for society and all of its individuals, I chose these authors to serve as a representation of my views and morals towards what it means to be a human being and to live a sincere life. These great writers have encapsulated the richness that can be obtained in life by using their own language through writing.

Achebe, Chinua. "Things Fall Apart, Parts 1-3, Chapters 1-25." The Norton Anthology of

World Literature. New York: Norton & Company, Inc., 2009. 1102-1190. Print.

This novel is presented because it serves as an important realistic perspective for people to see the view of people that lived in African villages, as the influence of Western colonialism became prevalent. Within the story the author shows as culture changes we must be consistent with ourselves and to hold true to who we are. The novel allows insight of a cross-cultural misinte...

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...in the underlying text that teaches the reader that children are the foundation of our existence. The story cautions the reader to always be conscious of each other and to rise from falsehoods that have been created by higher systems.

Literature is the necessary food that we need for our souls. Reading and studying literature, such as the great works in this canon, gives us the ability to free our minds from lives conformities. We must study these stories so that we can get a better understand from these great thinkers what it means to be a compassionate human. Studying literature allows its reader to learn from what these authors have to teach us. As we study these works, we can grow as individuals that can be a benefit to the advancement of society. Reading literature teaches us to develop our own sociological imagination so we can free and critical thinkers.