Literature can have many and different values on a person. It is all dependingon the story and the value or moral issue the author wants, you, the reader toget out of it. The value literature had on me was actually hard to put intowords.
But to understand the value of literature you must know the definition ofvalue and literature. Value has many meanings but there is two that relate. Worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor and a principle, standard, orquality considered worthwhile or desirable. Literature is a body of writings inprose or verse. Literature produces value because it is basically an analysis ofan experience or situation.
I got a different value out of each story. With MarkTwain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn it showed me that one does not have tobe civilized or conform to the ideas of society to become cultured or mature. With Huck Finn he ran away from everything that was considered civilized. He hadnothing and really did not want anything. But at the same time he experiencedand matured living dangerously.
This made me value Huck’s adventure and take itas my own. Huck proves his maturity when he comments on how the king and dukedupe the villagers into believing that they are the dead man’s brothers, andHuck says, “I never see anything so disgusting. “(Twain 163) Eventhough the king and duke commit an awful act on the villagers he still feelssorry for them when they get tarred. Huck comments, “Human beings can beawful cruel to one another. “(Twain 225) In William Faulkner’s Barn Burningit told of a man named Abner Snopes who burned barns when upset or mad. This washis way of getting back at them.
“Barn Burning” has two very evidentstruggles. Abner oppresses his family just as the upper class has oppressed him. “Barn Burning” to me is based on misdirected anger. Which is basicallyhappening in these days.
For example, a teenager and his parents have it out, heleaves, and now his anger is directed toward anything in his pathway. “BarnBurning” has a value in that it shows in life that people actuallymisdirect their anger. Such as in the school shootings and bomb threats thathave occurred in the past couple of years. Just like Abner Snopes felt like anoutsider to the upper class, so did the students who committed these violentacts. In “The Swimmer”, it made me value life and what it brings. Because if your not careful or you do not watch out it will past you up withoutnotice.
As with “Everyday Use”, one of the daughters did not value whoshe was or whom she was because she was going out looking for her history. Whichshe already had at her fingertips. Reading all of the literature this semesterhas broadened my outlook on life. It has made me realize that there are a lot ofthings that we as people in this society take for granted. Literature has mademe value a lot of experiences and situations; I did not know about until I readall of the short stories by various authors with different styles and views ofthings.
It is weird how the literature that has been written in the past stillhas an influence on what happenings in today’s society. We can reiterate thesame ideas, values, and morals into what is going on today.English Essays
