The Moral Powers of Literature

Literature is one of the largest devices utilized for learning and unraveling the complexities of humanities moral and ethical principles. Literature allows one to relate and reflect on human nature and self. While the journeys a book can take the mind on range from romance to science fiction and beyond, it often takes the reader into a fantasy world, back in time or to a different reality. Where the mundane day to day life can be escaped. However, when reality does set in the minds literary experiences are put forth into motion as knowledge becomes applicable to today’s world and expands ones viewpoints.

I was taught at a very young age to read and my family has gathered many pictures of my mom and I curled up in bed reading childhood classics together. Naturally as I grew older I became a bookworm. Every night was spent entering a world of fantasies that my mind illustrated based off of the words leaping from book pages. I have my very own library of my prized books that I have cherished throughout my life. While having the freedom to read my own choice books at home school became a bit of a struggle. Around middle school most students started to hate reading as it became a chore for homework and less about enjoyment. However the higher up I went in my literature journey the more I fell in love. As a student I’ve been granted teachers that not only require their students to read the books, but take their understanding past simple comprehension. The ability to analyze literature fascinated my growing teenage mind. Between plays such as Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet analyzing the complexities of lust versus love and the novel Lord of the Flies revealing the conflicts of humanities innate ability to be bad or good, the capacity at which my mind ethically and morally grew astounded myself. 

The question begging for literatures importance begins with the individual’s realization of growth as the outcome. Although as students we may be forced upon literature that is not to our liking, that does not devalue the underlying complex relations the story may have to our own lives. To be able to correlate today’s humanity past literatures surface level events and down amidst the caverns of character developmental reflection, a new set of eyes are open to greater analyzation. 

In to Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch represents an unchanging character of high ethical value understanding the balance between good and evil. When truly reading and analyzing the novel one notices the complex development of his son Jem’s growth from adolescence to adulthood as he witnesses the strength in justice. This book like many others explore one of humankind’s greatest questions on the morality of human nature. While tedious the story reveals the connection between literature and its critical desire to be understood and analyzed for greater interpretation. 

Literature opens oneself up to world views from those who might not share the same perspective as your own. It reveals unknown ideologies and new creative ways of thinking. To be able to not only connect to characters and fulfill fantasies books provide for our minds, but extract the knowledge and apply it to real world problems. Literature is the sharing of knowledge and the interpretations an individual may gather from each book may be different in comparison to their neighbor. The reality of literature is it holds power that only the true analyzers may extract from to impose moral encompassing ideologies.