The Value of Literature

Historically, imaginative literature has often been an object under attack. Plato warned his fellow Greeks that literature could rouse their emotions to too high an intensity. His recommendation was to throw the poets out of the republic. The Puritans who lived during the age of Shakespeare cautioned against the adverse effects of literature, especially drama. Tolstoy during his period of Christian conversion observed that literature was dangerous since it appealed to man's lowest instincts. Yet literature has not perished. Instead, it has flourished across the centuries. This essay will seek to defend literature by answering the following questions: Why is literature valuable? Why should we study it? How does it change our lives?

Literature is valuable because it offers us a rare chance at developing self-knowledge not readily available in other forms. As Oedipus Rex struggled to know himself, he did not recognize that he was blind. Only as Sophocles moves slowly with his development can the reader see what Oedipus eventually realizes. Physical sight is worthless if one cannot see the things of the spirit. By the play's end, Oedipus has blinded himself with Jocasta's brooch so that he will not be distracted by the physical act of seeing. Now he wishes to see clearly like Teiresias. Spiritual vision is his goal. Sophocles' drama allows this slow process of self-growth to be dramatically presented.

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itiation into evil and his inability to escape its grasp for the remainder of his life. To study Hawthorne's tale is to realize that knowledge of life's uglier side must be confronted. Neither a newspaper account nor a history could grapple with this material in the powerful way which Hawthorne does. As the previous examples suggest literature can help push us past depression or even despair. In Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener", Bartleby is presented as a man who has been reduced to the formulaic phrase, "I'd prefer not to" (Perrine 466). Employed as a copier, Bartleby refuses to do as his employer asks. Asked to work, he always indicates that this is not what he wishes to do. Eventually, the boss feels forced to let Bartleby go from his job. Next, he is forced to have Bartleby physically escorted off the premises. Yet the narrator's compassion has been stirred by Bartleby's condition. When Bartleby is sent to live in the Tombs, the narrator asks the local grub-man to feed him. Melville concludes the story by showing the narrator haunted by both Bartleby's wasted life and senseless death. He is the one who stumbles upon Bartleby's corpse. Here Melville indicates that one of the strengths of literature is
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Approximate Word count = 1678
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)