Why do we Study Literature?

Script

Shakespeare was widely popular at his times because his plays and characters were able to connect with his audience at the time and showed feelings and experiences that they could all relate with. He crafted the English language and was able to take his audience to another world where they could come out of the play with a better understanding and appreciation for life. He is popular today because the plot can still be related to experiences in the modern world. This brings people to question why we even study Shakespeare today. Going beyond that, people begin to question why we study literature. The first thing that needs to be understood before going on to answer this question is the fact that literature mirrors life. I would not have known the effect the Taliban had on Afghanistan before reading The Kite Runner. I would not have known how colonization affected people until reading Things Fall Apart. I would not have known the importance of language and identity before literature such as The Joy Luck Club. Great literature is able to resonate with audiences all across the world for decades. Literature helps us know the world around us and allows us to be more mindful and aware of other cultures and their struggles. It allows you to empathize and sympathize with characters who are not real and yet mirror the lives of many humans around the world. After being able to empathize with characters and books, that feeling extends far beyond literature. You gain a better understanding about human beings and their feelings and allows you to communicate and connect more efficiently. Life’s most important lessons and morals can be taught and shown throughout books and literature. Having other characters and other people go through life experiences in literature and then witnessing and being able to read about their lives shows what is morally and ethically acceptable and unacceptable. It is not rare that someone says the book was much better than the movie. When reading literature, you step into another world and you make the characters in your head and you mimic their actions and associate your own feelings with their feelings. When reading literature, you are living the plot and you are creating the perfect story, as if you are narrating it. When watching the movie, it is nowhere close to the perfect world that you have imagined and the empathy and feelings you associated with the book are no longer there. By living through other characters and their emotions, we discover ourselves and slowly become shaping our identity. We gain a moral compass and we are able to see our lives and our identities written down on a piece of paper as if it was designed for us. We question our actions and understand that no matter the time or place, human beings have the same emotions, experiences, and downfalls. It bonds us as human beings and it allows us to gain a better understanding of us as people.