Literacy has the power to bring the world together. As citizens of a global, interconnected community, we use literacy every day. We use the written word to celebrate our greatest wins and explore the deepest of sorrows, to find our tribe and debate different points of view. Even in times of great divisiveness, we fight with our words more often than with our fists. Literacy is the framework through which we communicate, connect and expand our shared existence.
There exists a purpose for reading and writing outside of these immediate practical purposes; the written word can be used to enlighten, to persuade, to express emotion, or simply for enjoyment. In these forms the written word becomes an art form, and a way of reaching out to others through a personal experience between the writer and the reader. Reading is an excellent way to associate oneself with the great minds of history and peer into their own thoughts. Reading is surely one of the most effective ways one can expand oneself.
Read literature because there is power in stories. Literature is both intensely personal as well as a communal experience. Examining how words, sentences, characters, plot-lines and tropes reveal who we are as humans. Humanity is a complicated thing, and requires an infinite amount of words to describe and analyze. That's the joy of reading literature, there is always a new reality to discover.
Literature in all forms is everywhere in today’s society, and with this idea, it is clear just how important it is. Whether it is studied in the classroom, read for pleasure or purpose, literature is a central part of many lives. It offers not only a chance to enlighten a person, but it also gives the chance to broaden one’s horizons and perspectives.
Literature is a way in which we can capture and interpret what has happened and is happening to us personally and to the world as a whole. An entire culture exists in the written word, documenting the collective thoughts of everyone who cared to share them with the world. For one to truly be a part of human society, it is critical that one take part in the evolution and self-realization that is literature, even if only in the reading aspect. Literature simply would not exist in the accessible form it does without the written word. One should take advantage of the great opportunity to be part of and contribute to the world and society in which he or she lives through writing. Literature in the societal sense is a collective struggle to understand and make the best of the lives that we have all been given. Literature serves as a way to enrich our minds, and presents a way to improve the world not only through the beauty of its presence but through the ideas and tangible possibilities it possesses.
Literature is an art full of passion and heart; it transcends the ages. Great literature hits on many different levels. Over the years authors have accomplished unfeasible tasks through the use of their words. Literature has prompted political and social change in societies and continues to do so to this day. It can be a battle cry for the proletariat to rise up and make a difference, and it can also provide personal counsel.
Literature sets you free from the responsibilities of this world, and at the same time it ties you down to those same responsibilities. Some literature you read is for an escape; to journey to a far away land and go on a grand adventure with creatures beyond my imagination. Other literature has much more serious subject matter, and you read it to remind yourself that life isn’t all cupcakes and ice cream.
Literature is about the obsession with ideas. We read literature to discover and to learn about ideas and we write it to discover and to cultivate our own ideas. No lover-of-ideas can go without either reading or writing. That must be why literature can appear in a multitude of forms: be it poetry or prose, the sonnet or the novel, the sestina or the short story, etc. All literature shares the common theme of the idea. Ideas explore, probe, inquire, and inspire. The reactions to such are all that become a part of the learning process. There is a great deal that literature can teach. Literature can teach to the individual and to all of society. It can teach us about the past and the present and even about the future. Subjects can be broad and far-reaching, but can also be specific. Literature teaches us about laughter and love, about remembering and forgetting. It can create emotion and warn us against our many human faults. It can attempt to disprove other ideas or attempt to find truth. We are all looking to find truth in some form or another. Oftentimes, the uncertainty of a specific meaning of a piece allows for its interpretation to be for the reader to decide. What is certain, however, is that there are things to be learned from literature that are specific to it, that cannot be attained through any other medium. To gather this knowledge and to experience its beauty all pertain to the importance of literature to me.
The window to humanity that lies at the heart of all literature can act as a sort of connecting portal to the culture surrounding each individual author. The reader stands on the common ground of the universal truth around which a work is constructed – the point at which the reader’s world and the author’s meet – and begins to understand some of the motivations behind the author’s own quest for truth.
Once someone has become more experienced in the ways of the world, or in the ways of literature, it falls upon that person to begin to light the way for future explorers. Some may write literary works of their own, using words to illuminate their views on the truth about humanity. Others may decide instead to act as teachers, helping prospective explorers learn to traverse the dense and sometimes bewildering forest of novels they will encounter along their journey. No matter the manner in which people choose to serve, the task itself remains as timeless as the truths that humans have sought for centuries: As the great thinkers and authors of the past have marked out paths in the wilderness for we who have followed them, so we must serve as guides for those who will come after us.
Great literature provides its readers with a window into various aspects of the human condition and a guide to the way we, as a species, relate to one another and to our surroundings. Literature gives us a mirror in which to examine our collective reflection as a people. It does not gloss over the pimples and blemishes of humanity, but exposes them quite openly. No concealer, no cover-up, only the truth. Literature is the reflecting pool into which every person that ever existed can look and see both his own face and the faces of all his fellow people. It enables each human to not only find the humanity within his own heart, but also to connect him to the generations of other people who have been doing so since the beginning of time.