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The Moral of the Story: The Power of Narrative to Inspire and Sustain Scholarship

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The Moral of the Story: The Power of Narrative to Inspire and Sustain Scholarship

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Using story telling to teach morals to your children

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My father was never trained as a professional storyteller; he is a retired engineer. And yet, some of my fondest childhood memories and valuable learning experiences can be traced to the innumerable stories my father narrated to me as a child and teenager. It did not matter what day of the week or what time of night it was. Besides the daily morning routine, where he would tell a story while getting ready for work, whenever there was a moral to be conveyed, a painful lesson to be learned, after my mother's questioning and reprimanding was over, my father would amazingly narrate a story whose characters, by some strange quirk of fate, also happened to be encountering questions, frustrations and dilemmas similar to mine.

Often, by the end of the story, even as a child, I'd gain a new perspective regarding my feelings and emotions, and come out with a deeper understanding of the next step of action. Modern psychologists might very well state that listening to parables, legends and fables allowed me to come to terms with my own "case history " with feelings of renewed spontaneity, creative problem-solving and wonder.

"Children learn best when they are unaware of the fact that they are being taught, " explains my master, Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari (affectionately known as Chariji), the president of Shri Ram Chandra Mission and spiritual guide for Sahaj Marg meditation practitioners. "That is why play, perhaps, is so intimately intertwined with the teaching process. Children learn practically all they are ever going to learn within the first six or seven years of their lives."

It is, therefore, no wonder that storytelling has been employed as a powerful tool throughout the centuries--by parents, grandparents, teachers, educators, saints and seers. In fact, storytelling has been part and parcel of mankind since the beginning of time--from the days of petrography utilized by prehistoric cave-dwellers to CD-ROMs created by computer scientists for kids growing up in the modern era.

"When did we first get exposed to the presence of a higher power in our life?" we might occasionally wonder. Walking down the obscure road of foggy, distant memories, we may eventually recognize that, in all likelihood, our first exposure to God, to religion and to spirituality started from a tale narrated by a parent or grandparent at bedtime. For instance, the Hindu psyche has imbibed its knowledge and insights from the deep treasure chest of Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas. Native Americans draw inspiration from their vast storehouse of oral folklore. Buddhist teachers reveal the timeless wisdom hidden in Zen stories and Jataka tales. Islam depends on its wealthy inheritance of stories from Sufi scholars and saints. Judaism draws its richness from Hasidic examples as well as Biblical histories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job and others. In Christianity, the New Testament describes how Jesus taught the masses in parables, and reserved the esoteric teaching for his disciples when they were away from the crowds.

Augusta Baker and Ellin Greene, authors of Storytelling: Art and Technique, speak about the need for this craft in simple, everyday language. "Storytelling brings to the listeners heightened awareness, " they say, "a sense of wonder, of mystery, of reverence for life."

Joseph Campbell, the world-renowned scholar of mythology, states pithily, "The folktale is the primer of the picture-language of the soul." In Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life, Thomas Moore writes: "Storytelling is an excellent way of caring for the soul. It helps us see the themes that circle in our lives, the deep themes that tell the myths we live."

In Stories to Nourish the Hearts of Our Children, contemporary storyteller Laura Simms shares from her professional and personal experience: "Listening to a story is a dynamic process that delights children while allowing them to imagine themselves in a variety of situations. Stories are non-didactic teaching tools. A story heard is not an explanation, but an experience that is enduring and enriching. Each child personally integrates the story, embodying the characters and experiencing the events."

"Stories contain seeds of healing, " she adds, "and telling them encourages growth and rejuvenation. Storytelling is an ancient method that has always served to bring people together and to stimulate creative imagination, wisdom and compassion."

Unfortunately, the fabric of today's society is woven together by nuclear families consisting of over-exhausted fathers and mothers, and its tapestry is strewn with the complexities of modern technology and gadgets. Consequently, it is not surprising that stressful parents have little time and no energy to spare, and are unable to live in the present and enjoy the laughter from the oral tradition. Even the little ones do not have the freedom to indulge in the make-believe world of dressing up, play acting and fantasy games. In order to get a head start and be one step ahead in tomorrow's rat race, more and more youngsters are being sent to preschools and kindergarten at a ridiculously young age--victims of "the hurried childhood syndrome." Additionally, due to the indiscriminate exposure to cable television, videos, DVDs and computer games, the youth in developed as well as developing world nations are facing a major crisis of values.

"Modern life has deprived the younger generation of access to the fairy tales of yester years, " laments Shri Rajagopalachari in Down Memory Lane. "They were entrancing beyond belief. But their greatest value lay not in their charm, but in their ability to give children, during their formative years, a permanent foundation of value systems which they absorbed without being aware of the fact that they were learning the most profound values of life. And since such values were implanted deep into the child's inner core of the developing human being, those values remained, to be called upon later in life in the form of hidden reserves of strength and fortitude, when the now-grown-up adult faced temptations or trying situations in actual life."

One can safely conclude that the loss of morals and ethics is a clear reflection of the diminishing importance given to folktales, myths and legends in our fast-food culture and life in the high-speed lane. One way or another, we have to learn to simplify our lives and attend to our inner growth and nurture the spiritual development of our children.

Drawing attention to the timeless wisdom inherited from the collective human experience in myths and symbols, and stressing the importance of reading myths, Joseph Campbell explains how "they teach you that you can turn inward, and you begin to get the message of the symbols." He suggests that we ought to "read other people's myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts--but if you read the other ones, you begin to get the message. Myth helps you to put your mind in touch with this experience of being alive."

When I was a child, little did I realize the importance of storytelling in my life! Neither did I know that reading and telling stories would eventually become an integral part of my parenting philosophy and style. My eleven-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter have been exposed to myths, fables, legends, folktales and spiritual stories from birth. The very first piece of music my son heard a few hours after coming into this world was the heartfelt devotional rendition of the Ramcharitmanas by the late Indian singer Mukesh--thanks to the audiotapes I had deliberately packed in the maternity bag for my hospital stay. Ever since, it has become a daily ritual in our house to share stories from mythology and scriptures at bedtime.

During the last decade, I have observed my children responding to storytellers and readers with varied reactions--ranging from interest and rapt attention to passiveness and plain disinterest--at school, in the libraries and in the comfort of our home. Watching their love for stories, I am nostalgically reminded of my father's gift for storytelling and the role that mythology and folktales played in my self-development. As Joseph Campbell claims, these stories became the launching pad for my spiritual journey, as the writers and narrators had a clear, unmistakable goal in sight: to evoke inspiration and deeper thinking in the young listener's heart and mind.

Rama Devagupta, PHD., is a full-time mother and freelance writer. she has been published in hinduism today, parabola, yoga international, u: you can change the world, tri-city herald, constant remembrance, the new times, sirs renaissance and ascent. she may be reached at rama_devagupta@msn.com.

Storytelling: A Dozen Practical Tips

In light of the wise words of scholars and spiritual teachers in my story above, I hope parents will find it worthwhile to reflect on the significance of the art and craft of storytelling for the benefit of the younger generation. I hope parents will try to claim the torch of storytelling by following a few of the tips listed below. At one time or another, I have used them myself and it has been an enjoyable experience for me and my children.

1) Read the story for yourself before you read it to the child. Absorb it, digest it and try to capture not just its moral, but also its essence.

2) Know the story well so that if you are interrupted, you can jump back into it comfortably.

3) Identify yourself mentally with the child. Listen to the story with a child's ears and see how you might make it more appealing. Feel free to adapt and revise depending on the age of your child.

4) Don't use a monotonous voice. Polish up your tone and style with some drama.

5) Allow yourself to get into the heart of the characters to make the tale come alive. It is important for the child to identify with the emotions and feelings of the characters.

6) Be natural. Allow the story to flow through you. For smaller children, facial expressions and hand movements used in a spontaneous, creative way evoke an enthusiastic response. Simple gestures, like a sparkle in the eyes, happy smile, anger or sadness in the voice, can successfully recreate the story's original atmosphere.

7) You are not giving a performance for a critical adult audience. Don't be stiff-necked and self-conscious, worried about appearing silly. Your prime objective should be to narrate in a pleasurable manner.

8) Some story books come with commentaries. Do not read the commentaries to young children as they might sound like a lecture. Mention the moral in fleeting reference. Wait for them to ask questions and when they do, guide them in their thinking.

9) Allow time and space for a dialogue with your children to instill the higher values of life. Reflection doesn't have to take place immediately after completing the reading; it can be done during the ordinary moments of your family life, during garden work, an evening walk or even at dinner time.

10) Sincerity is important in stories that deal with ethics and spirituality. The slightest hint of adult scepticism, and children will see through it immediately. Remember the power of thought: Your demeanor will radiate whatever you feel--whether it be faith or cynicism.

11) Learn to live in the moment. Consider why we love reading the stories narrated by spiritual masters like Buddha and Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa with such enchantment. It is due to their simplicity, faith and surrender to the Divine.

12) Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, affectionately known as Babuji, the founder president of Shri Ram Chandra Mission, once said: "Spirituality is a science of wonder " and "Doubt is a poison for the will." So let us remember to read these spiritual adventures with a feeling of wonder, narrate them with wonder, and somewhere along the way, we would have taught our children the art and craft of living a well-integrated, balanced, happy life.

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A Parent's Essential Skill: Storytelling

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My father was never trained as a professional storyteller; he is a retired engineer. And yet, some of my fondest childhood memories and valuable learning experiences can be traced to the innumerable stories my father narrated to me as a child and teenager.

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Recommending Books For Every Genre I Read [CC]

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Utopia or Dystopia?

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by Ursula K. LeGuin

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by Lumen Learning

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Summary

We have examined many schools of literary criticism. Here you will find an in-depth look at one of them: Reader-Response.

The Purpose of Reader-Response

Reader-response suggests that the role of the reader is essential to the meaning of a text, for only in the reading experience does the literary work come alive. For example, in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), the monster doesn't exist, so to speak, until the reader reads Frankenstein and reanimates it to life, becoming a co-creator of the text.

Thus, the purpose of a reading response is examining, explaining, and defending your personal reaction to a text.

Your critical reading of a text asks you to explore:

why you like or dislike the text;

explain whether you agree or disagree with the author;

identify the text's purpose; and

critique the text.

There is no right or wrong answer to a reading response. Nonetheless, it is important that you demonstrate an understanding of the reading and clearly explain and support your reactions. Do not use the standard approach of just writing: "I liked this text because it is so cool and the ending made me feel happy," or "I hated it because it was stupid, and had nothing at all to do with my life, and was too negative and boring." In writing a response you may assume the reader has already read the text. Thus, do not summarize the contents of the text at length. Instead, take a systematic, analytical approach to the text.

Write as a Scholar

Criticize with Examples

If you did not like a text, that is fine, but criticize it either from:

principle, for example:

Is the text racist?

Does the text unreasonably puts down things, such as religion, or groups of people, such as women or adolescents, conservatives or democrats, etc?

Does the text include factual errors or outright lies? It is too dark and despairing? Is it falsely positive?

form, for example:

Is the text poorly written?

Does it contain too much verbal "fat"?

Is it too emotional or too childish?

Does it have too many facts and figures?

Are there typos or other errors in the text?

Do the ideas wander around without making a point?

In each of these cases, do not simply criticize, but give examples. As a beginning scholar, be cautious of criticizing any text as "confusing" or "crazy," since readers might simply conclude that you are too ignorant or slow to understand and appreciate it.

The Structure of a Reader-Response Essay

Choosing a text to study is the first step in writing a reader-response essay. Once you have chosen the text, your challenge is to connect with it and have a "conversation" with the text.

In the beginning paragraph of your reader-response essay, be sure to mention the following:

title of the work to which you are responding;

the author; and

the main thesis of the text.

Key Takeaways

In reader-response, the reader is essential to the meaning of a text for they bring the text to life.

The purpose of a reading response is examining, explaining, and defending your personal reaction to a text.

When writing a reader-response, write as an educated adult addressing other adults or fellow scholars.

As a beginning scholar, be cautious of criticizing any text as "boring," "crazy," or "dull." If you do criticize, base your criticism on the principles and form of the text itself.

The challenge of a reader-response is to show how you connected with the text.

Examples

Reader-Response Essay Example

To Misread or to Rebel: A Woman's Reading of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"

At its simplest, reading is "an activity that is guided by the text; this must be processed by the reader who is then, in turn, affected by what he has processed" (Iser 63). The text is the compass and map, the reader is the explorer. However, the explorer cannot disregard those unexpected boulders in the path which he or she encounters along the journey that are not written on the map. Likewise, the woman reader does not come to the text without outside influences. She comes with her experiences as a woman-a professional woman, a divorcée, a single mother. Her reading, then, is influenced by her experiences. So when she reads a piece of literature like "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber, which paints a highly negative picture of Mitty's wife, the woman reader is forced to either misread the story and accept Mrs. Mitty as a domineering, mothering wife, or rebel against that picture and become angry at the society which sees her that way.

Due to pre-existing sociosexual standards, women see characters, family structures, even societal structures from the bottom as an oppressed group rather than from a powerful position on the top, as men do. As Louise Rosenblatt states: a reader's "tendency toward identification [with characters or events] will certainly be guided by our preoccupations at the time we read. Our problems and needs may lead us to focus on those characters and situations through which we may achieve the satisfactions, the balanced vision, or perhaps merely the unequivocal motives unattained in our own lives" (38). A woman reader who feels chained by her role as a housewife is more likely to identify with an individual who is oppressed or feels trapped than the reader's executive husband is. Likewise, a woman who is unable to have children might respond to a story of a child's death more emotionally than a woman who does not want children. However, if the perspective of a woman does not match that of the male author whose work she is reading, a woman reader who has been shaped by a male-dominated society is forced to misread the text, reacting to the "words on the page in one way rather than another because she operates according to the same set of rules that the author used to generate them" (Tompkins xvii). By accepting the author's perspective and reading the text as he intended, the woman reader is forced to disregard her own, female perspective. This, in turn, leads to a concept called "asymmetrical contingency," described by Iser as that which occurs "when Partner A gives up trying to implement his own behavioral plan and without resistance follows that of Partner B. He adapts himself to and is absorbed by the behavioral strategy of B" (164). Using this argument, it becomes clear that a woman reader (Partner A) when faced with a text written by a man (Partner B) will most likely succumb to the perspective of the writer and she is thus forced to misread the text. Or, she could rebel against the text and raise an angry, feminist voice in protest.

James Thurber, in the eyes of most literary critics, is one of the foremost American humorists of the 20th century, and his short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is believed to have "ushered in a major [literary] period ... where the individual can maintain his self ... an appropriate way of assaulting rigid forms" (Elias 432). The rigid form in Thurber's story is Mrs. Mitty, the main character's wife. She is portrayed by Walter Mitty as a horrible, mothering nag. As a way of escaping her constant griping, he imagines fantastic daydreams which carry him away from Mrs. Mitty's voice. Yet she repeatedly interrupts his reveries and Mitty responds to her as though she is "grossly unfamiliar, like a strange woman who had yelled at him in the crowd" (286). Not only is his wife annoying to him, but she is also distant and removed from what he cares about, like a stranger. When she does speak to him, it seems reflective of the way a mother would speak to a child. For example, Mrs. Mitty asks, "'Why don't you wear your gloves? Have you lost your gloves?' Walter Mitty reached in a pocket and brought out the gloves. He put them on, but after she had turned and gone into the building and he had driven on to a red light, he took them off again" (286). Mrs. Mitty's care for her husband's health is seen as nagging to Walter Mitty, and the audience is amused that he responds like a child and does the opposite of what Mrs. Mitty asked of him. Finally, the clearest way in which Mrs. Mitty is portrayed as a burdensome wife is at the end of the piece when Walter, waiting for his wife to exit the store, imagines that he is facing "the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last" (289). Not only is Mrs. Mitty portrayed as a mothering, bothersome hen, but she is ultimately described as that which will be the death of Walter Mitty.

Mrs. Mitty is a direct literary descendant of the first woman to be stereotyped as a nagging wife, Dame Van Winkle, the creation of the American writer, Washington Irving. Likewise, Walter Mitty is a reflection of his dreaming predecessor, Rip Van Winkle, who falls into a deep sleep for a hundred years and awakes to the relief of finding out that his nagging wife has died. Judith Fetterley explains in her book, The Resisting Reader, how such a portrayal of women forces a woman who reads "Rip Van Winkle" and other such stories "to find herself excluded from the experience of the story" so that she "cannot read the story without being assaulted by the negative images of women it presents" (10). The result, it seems, is for a woman reader of a story like "Rip Van Winkle" or "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" to either be excluded from the text, or accept the negative images of women the story puts forth. As Fetterley points out, "The consequence for the female reader is a divided self. She is asked to identify with Rip and against herself, to scorn the amiable sex and act just like it, to laugh at Dame Van Winkle and accept that she represents 'woman,' to be at once both repressor and repressed, and ultimately to realize that she is neither" (11). Thus, a woman is forced to misread the text and accept "woman as villain." as Fetterley names it, or rebel against both the story and its message.

So how does a woman reader respond to this portrayal of Mrs. Mitty? If she were to follow Iser's claim, she would defer to the male point of view presented by the author. She would sympathize with Mitty, as Thurber wants us to do, and see domineering women in her own life that resemble Mrs. Mitty. She may see her mother and remember all the times that she nagged her about zipping up her coat against the bitter winter wind. Or the female reader might identify Mrs. Mitty with her controlling mother-in-law and chuckle at Mitty's attempts to escape her control, just as her husband tries to escape the criticism and control of his own mother. Iser's ideal female reader would undoubtedly look at her own position as mother and wife and would vow to never become such a domineering person. This reader would probably also agree with a critic who says that "Mitty has a wife who embodies the authority of a society in which the husband cannot function" (Lindner 440). She could see the faults in a relationship that is too controlled by a woman and recognize that a man needs to feel important and dominant in his relationship with his wife. It could be said that the female reader would agree completely with Thurber's portrayal of the domineering wife. The female reader could simply misread the text.

Or, the female reader could rebel against the text. She could see Mrs. Mitty as a woman who is trying to do her best to keep her husband well and cared for. She could see Walter as a man with a fleeting grip on reality who daydreams that he is a fighter pilot, a brilliant surgeon, a gun expert, or a military hero, when he actually is a poor driver with a slow reaction time to a green traffic light. The female reader could read critics of Thurber who say that by allowing his wife to dominate him, Mitty becomes a "non-hero in a civilization in which women are winning the battle of the sexes" (Hasley 533) and become angry that a woman's fight for equality is seen merely as a battle between the sexes. She could read Walter's daydreams as his attempt to dominate his wife, since all of his fantasies center on him in traditional roles of power. This, for most women, would cause anger at Mitty (and indirectly Thurber) for creating and promoting a society which believes that women need to stay subservient to men. From a male point of view, it becomes a battle of the sexes. In a woman's eyes, her reading is simply a struggle for equality within the text and in the world outside that the text reflects.

It is certain that women misread "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." I did. I found myself initially wishing that Mrs. Mitty would just let Walter daydream in peace. But after reading the story again and paying attention to the portrayal of Mrs. Mitty, I realized that it is imperative that women rebel against the texts that would oppress them. By misreading a text, the woman reader understands it in a way that is conventional and acceptable to the literary world. But in so doing, she is also distancing herself from the text, not fully embracing it or its meaning in her life. By rebelling against the text, the female reader not only has to understand the point of view of the author and the male audience, but she also has to formulate her own opinions and create a sort of dialogue between the text and herself. Rebelling against the text and the stereotypes encourages an active dialogue between the woman and the text which, in turn, guarantees an active and (most likely) angry reader response. I became a resisting reader.

Works Cited

Elias, Robert H. "James Thurber: The Primitive, the Innocent, and the Individual." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 5. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Gale Research, 1980. 431-32. Print.

Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1978. Print.

Hasley, Louis. "James Thurber: Artist in Humor." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 11. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Gale Research, 1980. 532-34. Print.

Iser, Wolfgang. The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1981. Print.

Lindner, Carl M. "Thurber's Walter Mitty-The Underground American Hero." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 5. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Gale Research, 1980. 440-41. Print.

Rosenblatt, Louise M. Literature as Exploration. New York: MLA, 1976. Print.

Thurber, James. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." Literature: An Introduction to Critical Reading. Ed. William Vesterman. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1993. 286-89. Print.

Tompkins, Jane P. "An Introduction to Reader-Response Criticism." Reader Response Criticism: From Formalism to Post-Structuralism. Ed. Jane P. Tompkins. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1980. ix-xxvi. Print.

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We have examined many schools of literary criticism. Here you will find an in-depth look at one of them: Reader-Response. Reader-response suggests that the role of the reader is essential to the meaning of a text, for only in the reading experience does the literary work come alive.

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"The Rising Popularity of Dystopian Literature"

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"The Rising Popularity of Dystopian Literature"

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from The Artifice

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Dystopian fiction has grown as a genre and continues to evolve today. One of the first dystopian novels to become famous was George Orwell's 1984, which is still one of the top-selling dystopian novels today. Recently, there has been a rising popularity of dystopian novels. These novels have been transformed into popular movies that have made millions of dollars. There is a uniqueness to these novels that made them immensely intriguing to people and famous in today's society.

The concept of dystopian literature is to not only entertain readers, but to let them understand the ideas and characteristics of a dystopian society. These characteristics are shown through our own society but at a more drastic level. The reader gains more knowledge by finding ways in which the topics the author writes about is relevant to today's society. This style of writing is so popular because it makes readers think of interesting topics that seem realistic, yet fictional. The rising popularity of dystopian literature among adolescent audiences is prominent in today's pop culture due to its relevance in young adult's lives, its direct comparisons to current events in today's world, and its originality in relation to other genres.

The relativity of dystopian literature to young adult's lives is a component to why the genre is so popular. The reasoning behind this is how the stories are written. Young adult dystopian literature today is mostly in an adolescent's perspective. For example, The Giver by Lois Lowry published in 1993 was one of the first dystopian novels written in a teenager's perspective. Most of all dystopian novels are now written in this style, such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner. No one knows why there was such a gap between the dystopian novels from Lois Lowry's The Giver to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. Lowry is honored to think that she was one who started this fad, but she now says, "Dystopian fiction is passé now." ( Lowry). Dystopian literature dates back much further than 1993 with George Orwell's 1984 being written in 1949.

One component to the relativity of young adult dystopian literature is that they are written in a teenager's perspective, which is unusual for traditional literature. Young adults, with the drama and the hormones, are trying to figure out who they are and what they want to be in life. With dystopian novels, the character is perceived as someone with independence and ambition. For example, "So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts" ( Collins 6). This explains Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and how she understands herself as an individual. This gives reassurance to the reader who is at similar age to the protagonist of the story. They admire how the author shows the protagonists insecurities and concerns such as their love interests and body image. The readers, especially in young adult dystopian literature, can take themselves to an alternate universe in which the character lives and feel like they are in the story. This concept makes it easy for them to relate to the protagonist.

Societies within young adult novels and how they are structured connect to the universal high school experience. The Hunger Games is about the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, who fights to the death against other adolescents in an arena due to the government creating life or death game situations in order to control society and its actions. The Hunger Games can be compared to high school as a "...cutthroat race for high-school popularity becomes an annual televised fight" ( Stevens). Readers may see high school as a dystopian society because of the political stigmas that could possibly exist. There are social classes, upper class being the popular kids and lower class being everyone else. The "popular kids" run the school and mandate the status quo. This assumption is made for the stereotypical high school student. young adult dystopian novels can give young readers different types of advice whether it is love, conflicts with the school, or other classmates.

Divergent written by Veronica Roth is another dystopian novel that can be compared to a high school environment. Divergent is about a teenager protagonist, Beatrice Prior, who faces the faction Erudite to prevent them from overtaking the government. She is Divergent, a person who has the characteristics of each faction. This is perceived by other citizens as dangerous because it is rare and is considered a threat to society. In the young adult novel, there are groups of people called factions. There is Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Erudite (the intelligent), Amity (the peaceful), and Candor (the honest). These factions can be compared to cliques within a high school like the jocks and nerds.

For example, "Beatrice Prior... is a lifelong Abnegation who chooses at the last minute to become a Dauntless-basically, an Amish girl gone Goth" ( Stevens). This idea sends a negative message until readers meet the main protagonist, Beatrice Prior. Beatrice is born with a gift that makes her fall under none of the categories of these factions. She represents all the factions because she shares each of their characteristics. The government disapproves of this society of people because they do not fit neatly into a certain faction and could convolute the entire social system. She teaches the reader that it is okay to be different from everyone else because it brings out the beauty in people when you understand who they really are. There is a moral to the story in many of the young adult novels. In Divergent the underlying moral is to be oneself and show that it's acceptable to be different from those who feel they must hide who they truly are.

Young adult dystopian novels are known for their metaphors such as comparing the issues within the book to the current affairs in our world. Dystopian themes touch many controversial issues we face today, from school shootings to Middle Eastern women challenging cultural gender norms. The most covered subject in this genre is the government and its corrupted ways. In young adult dystopias, the problems are more recognizable and easily solves by the reader compared to real world issues. For example, "...it introduces...the problems of today's society and allows them to escape to a world where good and evil are more black and white than our own" ( Khood). Though a majority of the young adult population knows almost nothing about current events, these dystopian novels put them in a frame of mind conducive to thinking critically about current events. Dystopian novel authors make this concept intriguing by adding love interests and drama. Teenagers are not interested in what goes on in today's world because much history needs to be factored into each problem in order to understand the predicament. With dystopian novels, the problem is clear and needs almost no information to be explained.

The idea of rebelling against the government to teenagers is quite outrageous until they see how it is done in dystopian literature. Though this genre is fiction, the situation seems realistic because the problems within the novels can be compared to problems within our own country or world. These ideas give hope to young adults to think that they can speak up for what they believe in whether it is in school or about the government. For example, "... they reflect the economic unrest in America today and allow teenagers to believe that they can make a difference." ( Khood) These brave characters in these novels are admired by millions of adolescents and they want to be like them with their heroic courage. This mind-set gives them confidence that their voice matter no matter what the topic is over.

Young adults now do not comprehend the idea of government and how powerful it can be especially in America because of our democratic government. We are not enlightened in how cruel governments and militaries are around the world. By reading these kinds of novels, we get a main idea of how insane some societies and governments can be. Parents might have a problem with this concept because they do not want their children to be exposed to these extreme ideas. Teenagers like how dystopian novels are honest with their readers and they treat them like adults with the ideas they display. An example of this is, "...politicians, military people and corporate moguls are capable of doing awful things - meaning dystopian novels feel kind of honest" ( Astor). The bluntness given from these authors is attractive to the reader because teenagers do not enjoy things that are sugar-coated. They want honesty and to be treated like adults so they enjoy reading this sort of writing style.

With everything that is happening in young adult's lives, young adult dystopian novels are an escape from reality. Teenagers are forever known for their "best and worst" years of their lives. From high school parties to girls' first love heartbreak, teenager's lives are like a rollercoaster. These novels parallel to teenager's moods in how they escalate situations in an instant, and then a completely different mood is set up while reading. Young adult dystopian novels are known for their intense plot twists. These twists make these novels intensely popular because it causes adolescents to engage themselves into the book. The characters are so well liked and "we're fascinated by the terrible things these characters face, and by how some react bravely and some react cowardly or with resignation" ( Astor). Dystopian novels are much more than just books; they are problem-solving situations. All these combined intriguing components have greatly escalated the allure and popularity of this genre.

One of the most interesting parts of the most popular dystopian novels is that the protagonist is a female. Though the main character is a female, she has a powerful male presence in the story and takes on stereotypical male obstacles. This is because the authors of these books want to make the character relatable to both genders or want to make strong female characters as a challenge to society's gender norms. An example of this is, "...readers can experience a level of freedom from oppression and freedom to play with gender not possible in the real world." ( Smith). This is a good way for male adolescents to see a female's perception in a male fitted situation. With these roles, a male or female could play both roles and there would be no need in changing any part of the book.

This makes it attractive for both genders to read rather than a specific one. Young adult dystopian novels "...encourage different ways of thinking about gender and sexuality, departing from what is normal and teaching acceptance of varying forms of identity and self-expression" ( Smith). The idea of a female playing a non-feminine role has instantly attracted a huge audience and made this genre extremely popular among all ages.

Some of these dystopian novels have such an influence on women's lives because it introduces to them the idea of females playing a non-feminine role. The female roles in these novels are masculine to some degree, but they also have feminine characteristics. All of these concepts are so popular because it causes such controversy. This includes males and females who are on the fence about these ideas that this controversy caters to. The authors create a good balance of making sure the character is not too masculine or feminine so that the protagonist can be relatable. For example, "Her comfort with her masculinity is assumed, and her transgression of traditional femininity is in fact not transgressive at all." ( Smith) The protagonist is pleased with who she is and this is symbolic to independent women. They learn to be their own individual and do not depend on other people for happiness or survival.

Given all of these examples of the rising popularity of dystopian literature, there are many purposes to this original genre. One purpose being that it is more relatable to the audience. This genre of books has an emotional effect on people and how they feel about the world and on different issues they face. The basic focus of dystopian literature is to make readers think about how these dystopian societies relate to the real world.

In the end, the dystopian genre has been alive and thriving for many years. Teenagers' love for dystopian novels have created a whole new business for movies, merchandise, and more. No one can predict whether this genre will continue its popularity but it will allow our present generation more open-minded due to the ideas these novels share on government, military, society, and culture. The real question is will young adult dystopian literature continue it's popularity or slowly disintegrate and begin another fad in literature?

Works Cited

Astor, Dave. Why Do We Like Dystopian Novels? Article Byline Information . 19 October 2012. 25 October 2014 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-astor/why-do-we-like-dystopian-novels_b_1979301.html>.

Collins, Suzanne. "Chapter One." Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008.

Khood. The Hunger Games and Importance of Dystopian Literature . 28 April 2012. 25 October 2014 .

Lowry, Lois. The Giver Author Lois Lowry Says Dystopian Fiction Is Passé Janey Tracey. 13 August 2014.

Smith, Hannah. "Permission to Diverge: Gender in Young Adult Dystopian Literature." University of Puget Sound Sound Ideas (2014).

Stevens, Dana. "Why Teens Love Dystopias ." Slate (2014).

What do you think? .

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The Rising Popularity of Dystopian Literature

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Dystopian fiction has grown as a genre and continues to evolve today. One of the first dystopian novels to become famous was George Orwell's 1984, which is still one of the top-selling dystopian novels today. Recently, there has been a rising popularity of dystopian novels.

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by Shirley Jackson

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The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o'clock; in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to be started on June 26th, but in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took only about two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.

The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands. Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix-the villagers pronounced this name "Dellacroy"-eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys. The girls stood aside, talking among themselves, looking over their shoulders at the boys, and the very small children rolled in the dust or clung to the hands of their older brothers or sisters.

Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes. They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed. The women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters, came shortly after their menfolk. They greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands. Soon the women, standing by their husbands, began to call to their children, and the children came reluctantly, having to be called four or five times. Bobby Martin ducked under his mother's grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones. His father spoke up sharply, and Bobby came quickly and took his place between his father and his oldest brother.

The lottery was conducted-as were the square dances, the teen-age club, the Halloween program-by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic activities. He was a round-faced, jovial man and he ran the coal business, and people were sorry for him, because he had no children and his wife was a scold. When he arrived in the square, carrying the black wooden box, there was a murmur of conversation among the villagers, and he waved and called, "Little late today, folks." The postmaster, Mr. Graves, followed him, carrying a three-legged stool, and the stool was put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set the black box down on it. The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool, and when Mr. Summers said, "Some of you fellows want to give me a hand?," there was a hesitation before two men, Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, came forward to hold the box steady on the stool while Mr. Summers stirred up the papers inside it.

The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box. There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here. Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done. The black box grew shabbier each year; by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.

Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, held the black box securely on the stool until Mr. Summers had stirred the papers thoroughly with his hand. Because so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded, Mr. Summers had been successful in having slips of paper substituted for the chips of wood that had been used for generations. Chips of wood, Mr. Summers had argued, had been all very well when the village was tiny, but now that the population was more than three hundred and likely to keep on growing, it was necessary to use something that would fit more easily into the black box. The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made up the slips of paper and put them into the box, and it was then taken to the safe of Mr. Summers' coal company and locked up until Mr. Summers was ready to take it to the square next morning. The rest of the year, the box was put away, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr. Graves' barn and another year underfoot in the post office, and sometimes it was set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there.

There was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers declared the lottery open. There were the lists to make up-of heads of families, heads of households in each family, members of each household in each family. There was the proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this part of the ritual had been allowed to lapse. There had been, also, a ritual salute, which the official of the lottery had had to use in addressing each person who came up to draw from the box, but this also had changed with time, until now it was felt necessary only for the official to speak to each person approaching. Mr. Summers was very good at all this; in his clean white shirt and blue jeans, with one hand resting carelessly on the black box, he seemed very proper and important as he talked interminably to Mr. Graves and the Martins.

Just as Mr. Summers finally left off talking and turned to the assembled villagers, Mrs. Hutchinson came hurriedly along the path to the square, her sweater thrown over her shoulders, and slid into place in the back of the crowd. "Clean forgot what day it was," she said to Mrs. Delacroix, who stood next to her, and they both laughed softly. "Thought my old man was out back stacking wood," Mrs. Hutchinson went on, "and then I looked out the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty-seventh and came a-running." She dried her hands on her apron, and Mrs. Delacroix said, "You're in time, though. They're still talking away up there."

Mrs. Hutchinson craned her neck to see through the crowd and found her husband and children standing near the front. She tapped Mrs. Delacroix on the arm as a farewell and began to make her way through the crowd. The people separated good-humoredly to let her through; two or three people said, in voices just loud enough to be heard across the crowd, "Here comes your Mrs., Hutchinson," and "Bill, she made it after all." Mrs. Hutchinson reached her husband, and Mr. Summers, who had been waiting, said cheerfully, "Thought we were going to have to get on without you, Tessie." Mrs. Hutchinson said, grinning, "Wouldn't have me leave m'dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe?," and soft laughter ran through the crowd as the people stirred back into position after Mrs. Hutchinson's arrival.

"Well, now," Mr. Summers said soberly, "guess we better get started, get this over with, so's we can go back to work. Anybody ain't here?"

"Dunbar," several people said. "Dunbar, Dunbar."

Mr. Summers consulted his list. "Clyde Dunbar," he said. "That's right. He's broke his leg, hasn't he? Who's drawing for him?"

"Me, I guess," a woman said, and Mr. Summers turned to look at her. "Wife draws for her husband," Mr. Summers said. "Don't you have a grown boy to do it for you, Janey?" Although Mr. Summers and everyone else in the village knew the answer perfectly well, it was the business of the official of the lottery to ask such questions formally. Mr. Summers waited with an expression of polite interest while Mrs. Dunbar answered.

"Horace's not but sixteen yet," Mrs. Dunbar said regretfully. "Guess I gotta fill in for the old man this year."

"Right," Mr. Summers said. He made a note on the list he was holding. Then he asked, "Watson boy drawing this year?"

A tall boy in the crowd raised his hand. "Here," he said. "I'm drawing for m'mother and me." He blinked his eyes nervously and ducked his head as several voices in the crowd said things like "Good fellow, Jack," and "Glad to see your mother's got a man to do it."

"Well," Mr. Summers said, "guess that's everyone. Old Man Warner make it?"

"Here," a voice said, and Mr. Summers nodded.

A sudden hush fell on the crowd as Mr. Summers cleared his throat and looked at the list. "All ready?" he called. "Now, I'll read the names-heads of families first-and the men come up and take a paper out of the box. Keep the paper folded in your hand without looking at it until everyone has had a turn. Everything clear?"

The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions; most of them were quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around. Then Mr. Summers raised one hand high and said, "Adams." A man disengaged himself from the crowd and came forward. "Hi, Steve," Mr. Summers said, and Mr. Adams said, "Hi, Joe." They grinned at one another humorlessly and nervously. Then Mr. Adams reached into the black box and took out a folded paper. He held it firmly by one corner as he turned and went hastily back to his place in the crowd, where he stood a little apart from his family, not looking down at his hand.

"Allen," Mr. Summers said. "Anderson. . . . Bentham."

"Seems like there's no time at all between lotteries any more," Mrs. Delacroix said to Mrs. Graves in the back row. "Seems like we got through with the last one only last week."

"Time sure goes fast," Mrs. Graves said.

"Clark. . . . Delacroix."

"There goes my old man," Mrs. Delacroix said. She held her breath while her husband went forward.

"Dunbar," Mr. Summers said, and Mrs. Dunbar went steadily to the box while one of the women said, "Go on, Janey," and another said, "There she goes."

"We're next," Mrs. Graves said. She watched while Mr. Graves came around from the side of the box, greeted Mr. Summers gravely, and selected a slip of paper from the box. By now, all through the crowd there were men holding the small folded papers in their large hands, turning them over and over nervously. Mrs. Dunbar and her two sons stood together, Mrs. Dunbar holding the slip of paper.

"Harburt. . . . Hutchinson."

"Get up there, Bill," Mrs. Hutchinson said, and the people near her laughed.

"Jones."

"They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery."

Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly. "Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody."

"Some places have already quit lotteries," Mrs. Adams said.

"Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools."

"Martin." And Bobby Martin watched his father go forward. "Overdyke. . . . Percy."

"I wish they'd hurry," Mrs. Dunbar said to her older son. "I wish they'd hurry."

"They're almost through," her son said.

"You get ready to run tell Dad," Mrs. Dunbar said.

Mr. Summers called his own name and then stepped forward precisely and selected a slip from the box. Then he called, "Warner."

"Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery," Old Man Warner said as he went through the crowd. "Seventy-seventh time."

"Watson." The tall boy came awkwardly through the crowd. Someone said, "Don't be nervous, Jack," and Mr. Summers said, "Take your time, son."

"Zanini."

After that, there was a long pause, a breathless pause, until Mr. Summers, holding his slip of paper in the air, said, "All right, fellows." For a minute, no one moved, and then all the slips of paper were opened. Suddenly, all the women began to speak at once, saying, "Who is it?," "Who's got it?," "Is it the Dunbars?," "Is it the Watsons?" Then the voices began to say, "It's Hutchinson. It's Bill," "Bill Hutchinson's got it."

"Go tell your father," Mrs. Dunbar said to her older son.

People began to look around to see the Hutchinsons. Bill Hutchinson was standing quiet, staring down at the paper in his hand. Suddenly, Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers, "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!"

"Be a good sport, Tessie," Mrs. Delacroix called, and Mrs. Graves said, "All of us took the same chance."

"Shut up, Tessie," Bill Hutchinson said.

"Well, everyone," Mr. Summers said, "that was done pretty fast, and now we've got to be hurrying a little more to get done in time." He consulted his next list. "Bill," he said, "you draw for the Hutchinson family. You got any other households in the Hutchinsons?"

"There's Don and Eva," Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. "Make them take their chance!"

"Daughters draw with their husbands' families, Tessie," Mr. Summers said gently. "You know that as well as anyone else."

"It wasn't fair," Tessie said.

"I guess not, Joe," Bill Hutchinson said regretfully. "My daughter draws with her husband's family, that's only fair. And I've got no other family except the kids."

"Then, as far as drawing for families is concerned, it's you," Mr. Summers said in explanation, "and as far as drawing for households is concerned, that's you, too. Right?"

"Right," Bill Hutchinson said.

"How many kids, Bill?" Mr. Summers asked formally.

"Three," Bill Hutchinson said. "There's Bill, Jr., and Nancy, and little Dave. And Tessie and me."

"All right, then," Mr. Summers said. "Harry, you got their tickets back?"

Mr. Graves nodded and held up the slips of paper. "Put them in the box, then," Mr. Summers directed. "Take Bill's and put it in."

"I think we ought to start over," Mrs. Hutchinson said, as quietly as she could. "I tell you it wasn't fair. You didn't give him time enough to choose. Every body saw that."

Mr. Graves had selected the five slips and put them in the box, and he dropped all the papers but those onto the ground, where the breeze caught them and lifted them off.

"Listen, everybody," Mrs. Hutchinson was saying to the people around her.

"Ready, Bill?" Mr. Summers asked, and Bill Hutchinson, with one quick glance around at his wife and children, nodded.

"Remember," Mr. Summers said, "take the slips and keep them folded until each person has taken one. Harry, you help little Dave." Mr. Graves took the hand of the little boy, who came willingly with him up to the box. "Take a paper out of the box, Davy," Mr. Summers said. Davy put his hand into the box and laughed. "Take just one paper," Mr. Summers said. "Harry, you hold it for him." Mr. Graves took the child's hand and removed the folded paper from the tight fist and held it while little Dave stood next to him and looked up at him wonderingly.

"Nancy next," Mr. Summers said. Nancy was twelve, and her school friends breathed heavily as she went forward, switching her skirt, and took a slip daintily from the box. "Bill, Jr.," Mr. Summers said, and Billy, his face red and his feet overlarge, nearly knocked the box over as he got a paper out. "Tessie," Mr. Summers said. She hesitated for a minute, looking around defiantly, and then set her lips and went up to the box. She snatched a paper out and held it behind her.

"Bill," Mr. Summers said, and Bill Hutchinson reached into the box and felt around, bringing his hand out at last with the slip of paper in it.

The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, "I hope it's not Nancy," and the sound of the whisper reached the edges of the crowd.

"It's not the way it used to be," Old Man Warner said clearly. "People ain't the way they used to be."

"All right," Mr. Summers said. "Open the papers. Harry, you open little Dave's."

Mr. Graves opened the slip of paper and there was a general sigh through the crowd as he held it up and everyone could see that it was blank. Nancy and Bill, Jr., opened theirs at the same time, and both beamed and laughed, turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of paper above their heads.

"Tessie," Mr. Summers said. There was a pause, and then Mr. Summers looked at Bill Hutchinson, and Bill unfolded his paper and showed it. It was blank.

"It's Tessie," Mr. Summers said, and his voice was hushed. "Show us her paper, Bill."

Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal-company office. Bill Hutchinson held it up, and there was a stir in the crowd.

"All right, folks," Mr. Summers said. "Let's finish quickly."

Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box. Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up."

Mrs. Dunbar had small stones in both hands, and she said, gasping for breath. "I can't run at all. You'll have to go ahead and I'll catch up with you."

The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.

Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head.

Old Man Warner was saying, "Come on, come on, everyone." Steve Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him.

"It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her. ♦

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Fiction, from 1948: "The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions; most of them were quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around."

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by Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation

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The Lottery (Shirley Jackson) - 1969 Short Film

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by Michael Delahoyde

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Introduction to Literature
Michael Delahoyde

Marxism

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was primarily a theorist and historian (less the evil pinko commie demon that McCarthyism fretted about). After examining social organization in a scientific way (thereby creating a methodology for social science: political science), he perceived human history to have consisted of a series of struggles between classes--between the oppressed and the oppressing. Whereas Freud saw "sexual energy" to be the motivating factor behind human endeavor and Nabokov seemed to feel artistic impulse was the real factor, Marx thought that "historical materialism" was the ultimate driving force, a notion involving the distribution of resources, gain, production, and such matters.

The supposedly "natural" political evolution involved (and would in the future involve) "feudalism" leading to "bourgeois capitalism" leading to "socialism" and finally to "utopian communism." In bourgeois capitalism, the privileged bourgeoisie rely on the proletariat--the labor force responsible for survival. Marx theorized that when profits are not reinvested in the workers but in creating more factories, the workers will grow poorer and poorer until no short-term patching is possible or successful. At a crisis point, revolt will lead to a restructuring of the system.

For a political system to be considered communist, the underclasses must own the means of production--not the government nor the police force. Therefore, aside from certain first-century Christian communities and other temporary communes, communism has not yet really existed. (The Soviet Union was actually state-run capitalism.)

Marx is known also for saying that "Religion is the opiate of the people," so he was somewhat aware of the problem that Lenin later dwelt on. Lenin was convinced that workers remain largely unaware of their own oppression since they are convinced by the state to be selfless. One might point to many "opiates of the people" under most political systems--diversions that prevent real consideration of trying to change unjust economic conditions.

Marxist Criticism

According to Marxists, and to other scholars in fact, literature reflects those social institutions out of which it emerges and is itself a social institution with a particular ideological function. Literature reflects class struggle and materialism: think how often the quest for wealth traditionally defines characters. So Marxists generally view literature "not as works created in accordance with timeless artistic criteria, but as 'products' of the economic and ideological determinants specific to that era" (Abrams 149). Literature reflects an author's own class or analysis of class relations, however piercing or shallow that analysis may be.

The Marxist critic simply is a careful reader or viewer who keeps in mind issues of power and money, and any of the following kinds of questions:

What role does class play in the work; what is the author's analysis of class relations?

How do characters overcome oppression?

In what ways does the work serve as propaganda for the status quo; or does it try to undermine it?

What does the work say about oppression; or are social conflicts ignored or blamed elsewhere?

Does the work propose some form of utopian vision as a solution to the problems encountered in the work?

Works Consulted

Abrams, M.H. "Marxist Criticism." A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999. 147-153.

Biddle, Arthur W., and Toby Fulwiler. Reading, Writing, and the Study of Literature. NY: Random House, 1989.

Lynn, Steven. Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory. 2nd ed. NY: Longman, 1998.

Murfin, Ross, and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Critical Theory
Introduction to Literature

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Introduction to Literature Michael Delahoyde Marxism Karl Marx (1818-1883) was primarily a theorist and historian (less the evil pinko commie demon that McCarthyism fretted about). After examining social organization in a scientific way (thereby creating a methodology for social science: political science), he perceived human history to have consisted of a series of struggles between classes--between the oppressed and the oppressing.