Power of Literature

How the Power of lit Has mend My Life Value of Literature Alex Sidorov position 101 Alex Sidorov Thompson incline 101 May 27, 2009 How the Power of Literature Has Affected My Life Value of Literature If you asked me how often I valued entertains a few months ago, I would soak up probably laughed it off and entitle it has no value because it does non affect me. What miscellany of value could writings peradventure have? It is just books. Random characters dealing with their random problems. What could that possibly offer me except giving me just ab turn outthing to kill time?It was not until I began researching approximately the value of lit that I realized its vital contributions to my animateness and the lives of every(prenominal) unriv in alled around me. I found out no matter how lots (or not so often) that you deal, books mountain and go forth clam up affect you in a centering zippo else can. The value of writings to me can not only be found in what I h ave learned from dealing, but how it has find outd my life. In this es verify, I am going to utter roughly how literary productions has affected me, and in a small(a) way determined who I am today, and how it has affected my views on certain subjects. different types of books have taught me many interesting things about the world, cultures, and most importantly, myself. In addition, I ordain describe my hi degree as a indorser and my plan for shooting in the future. Literature has well-nighwhat sculpted me into the psyche I am today. I believe that children are very soft influenced, and as a child, I was exposed to literature almost every night. I began to read Goosebumps books when I was only five years old.I deliberate that habit has affected my soulfulnessality because literature is about connecting with the characters on a more than-than-personal level, and I encounter give care I can do that now to my friends transgress than most community can. I have a great maven of empathy that keeps me from doing anything to anyone that I would not like do to myself. An English teacher named Tim Gillespie, who has studied the value of literature and written many conditions about it, concludes By its truthful portrayal of lifes complex moral choices, literature draws us in, submerges us into a story, and summons our imaginative power to identify with characters.Literature thus might be one antidote to the disease of disjuncture that afflicts us. Assaulting close in like mannerne, tagging a wall with spray paint, sexually harassing anformer(a), or yelling a racial slur all show up incapacity to empathize, to imagine anothers deepest responses, to moot the real consequences of actions on others. In the fractious world we inhabit, empathy is a much-needed skill, and literature is a form in which we can practice this skill (Gillespie 61). presume this is true, I attribute my empathy to my childhood reading.And who knows what other characteristics a nd changes to my personality reading has brought me. This is an panorama of reading I cogitate is extremely under rated, and I think it should be more publicly known. When I think about it, at that place must be a link between empathy and reading at a young age, as my friends who seem to completely lack empathy dont read at all and dont have the strong family values that would support reading, specially at a young age. Empathy is one of the most valuable things literature can offer its readers.Bill Clinton once said that children could not be expected to live a life they cannot imagine. Moreover, there is no weaken way to expand ones imagination than with reading. The books I enjoy reading pick out the protagonist embarking on a long and un likely journey, which would be unrealistic for me to experience for myself in real life. However, I feel like by reading about this adventure, in a sense I am experiencing it for myself. Theres something about reading that grants it so in volving, unlike movies or television where I can become distracted and miss parts of it.Reading requires all of my senses to be focused on the literature, which I believe helps expand my imagination. An article in the magazine knowledge do principal(prenominal) &038 I states The study of great literature nurtures the learners imaginative power and this imaginative power restores us to our real selves and enriches an privileged self. Great literature helps revive what is most precious in our souls (The allow Value). Literature is the key for a healthy imagination. Although literature has, some hidden powers like expanding your imagination and promoting empathy, it serves another obvious purpose, to teach.Literature, fiction or non-fiction, usually has something to offer. A great example of this is A Complicated Kindness. earlier reading this novel, I believed the typical stereotype of Mennonites boring, religious people who cast away themselves from the outside world because for some reason, they think their way of life is punter than ours. This book taught me how wrong I was. I learned that many of the Mennonite teenagers go through the same troubles and experiences many average Canadian teens go through.I discovered the author grew up as a Mennonite in Manitoba, and although it is by no means a factual memoir, I am still confident, much of the information about the culture and the peoples behavior is accurate. Reading the book was much more gratifying than I had anticipated because I was education about a new culture and I could in some ways, relate to Nomi, at least much more than I suasion I would. Literature was able to teach me about the behind-the-scenes Mennonite life-style that I dont think I could learn about anywhere else.In an essay by Cynthia Ozick, she states that the pulse and purpose of literature is to reject the defame of the universal to distinguish one life from another to illumine transformation to light up the least grain of bein g, to show how it is concretely individual, in particularized from any other to tell, in all the marvel of its singularity, the divulge holiness of the least grain. Literature is the recognition of the particular (Ozick 248). This is saying that literature can help you learn by showing you the hardships and experiences of one person usually the protagonist.This is especially true with Nomi. Instead of seeing a intelligence information special about Mennonite villages helping out by building houses for one another and then living happily ever after, we reject the put off of the universal and light up the least grain of being Nomi. It was not until grade four or five that I found out how much you can learn from a piece of fiction. I read a book called Under a War Torn, which was the by off the beaten track(predicate) the longest book I had read up to that point. It was about a oldier named Henry Forester who found himself behind enemy lines in the World War II. Henry travels throu gh France on a journey to sink home, and through the process, I was exposed to all sorts of information about the war. Blitzkriegs, battles, attitudes, and tragedies were some of the important things I learned about which still stick with me today. stock-still during fib class in tenth grade, many of the facts that were taught from the textbook I had already learned through literature. Only this is a special kind of literature called diachronic literature. Patricia Crawford, a professor in the Instruction and cultivation department of the University of Pittsburgh, writes about how Scholars and practitioners in the field recognize the importance of study history in ways that actively engage students in their learning. The cellular inclusion of high-quality literature in general and historical fiction in particular, inwardly the social studies curriculum provides a sizeable means of facilitating this type of affair (Crawford). I can personally say through my own experiences t hat historical fiction is an extremely valuable tool that should be included in history curriculums.I do not enjoy reading fact-heavy textbooks, and would much rather read a story that incorporates the information into the plot. This way I will be more absorbed by the writing, and it is more likely I will retain the information. That is why historical literature is so valuable to me. A few years ago, I read a book called The Secret. It had been featured on Oprah and claimed to posses an ancient secret. The secret is that if you wish for something anything, you will somehow get it. To prove this it uses testimonies and interprets the Laws of Attraction.It went as far as to say What you think and what you feel and what actually manifests is ALWAYS a match no exception (Byrne 23). If you wish for a shiny new red bicycle, you will be rewarded with one. After hearing about so many people having success with this secret, even though it made no sense scientifically, I decided to read it. In addition, the strange thing is, the more I read into it, the more believable it was. I began trying it out, and certain(a) enough, sometimes it did seem to work. However, deep down I knew it had to be a coincidence. Therefore, I researched it on the internet and realized how completely bogus it was.I realized that only literature has the power to make you believe the impossible. In addition, in a sense, it made the impossible true. I have seen interminable interviews with people who swear by it with real stories about how it worked, yet, it is impossible, and I think deep down everybody knows that. This just goes to show the power of literature. I cast myself to have a very high level of common sense, so the fact that I even googled it baffles me. There are many other texts out there that have influenced me along with millions of others, one being The Da Vinci Code.That work of fiction brought down a wave of suspicion found on the Christian religion just because it was writte n as if it was a true story, and it used real locations and real historical evidence. This just goes to show that literature can influence peoples beliefs beyond what should be possible. I feel that literature can help improve my life because it makes me a better learner. Reading and literature force you to make connections and relate things to and to always be thinking, which are skills that allow me to learn things easier.Author Bruce Meyer wrote in one of his books The favorable Thread A Readers through the Great Books Heres the simple truth nothing prepares us better for reading than reading. Reading is a process not just of assimilating ideas but of learning the skills, the fundamental structures, and the repeated story line that make further reading a richer, more enjoyable and much more powerful experience (Meyer 4). I feel like the more I read, the easier it is to read and the more inclined I am to read more. During high school, I will admit I devolve into a reading slump . I barely read.I was far too busy with football, wrestling, homework, work, and other distractions to be bothered to pick up a book. For the most part, the only books I have read have been in the four English classes I have taken. This may even be what turned me off reading many of the books I have read in high school are more geared towards girls. The main character is usually a girl, and the conflicts and problems in the book usually do not interest me. However, no matter how busy I am, I think I will always be able to make time for reading. So what is the value of literature to me?I do not think I can put a value on something that helped shape me into the good person I am today. Something that expands my imagination and helps me learn. Something that teaches me about different cultures, and times then those that Im already familiar with. Something that can influence and persuade me to do great things. Literature is far too powerful to put any value on. And thats why Ill continue to read end-to-end my life so I can continue to benefit from all of literatures power. Works Cited Byrne, Rhonda. The Secret. New York Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2006.Crawford, Patricia A. , and Vicky Zygouris-Coe. Those were the days learning about history through literature. Childhood Education 84. 4 (Summer 2008) 197(7). Academic OneFile. Gale. Guelph Public Library. 8 Nov. 2008 The Enduring Value of Literature. World &038 I 11. 5 (May 1996) 282 Gillespie, Tim. Why literature matters. Education Digest 61. 1 (Sep. 1995) 61. Meyer, Bruce. The Golden Thread A Readers Through the Great Books. Toronto HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2000. Ozick, Cynthia. Art &038 Arder. New York Random House, 1983.