Literature is a pool of ideas that are expressed through characters and scenarios that reflect our lives, the way that we feel about society, our thoughts on power struggles between social and economic groups, etc. So when we read literature, it’s these things that are referenced, over and over again. One of the skills that students are taught in order to analyze literature is to be able to find the ideas, explain how the author is demonstrating it, and flesh out why the author is trying to say what s/he is about that topic. In order to help some of the younger students (middle and high school students) in English classes, here are 6 big ideas that can be found in most literary works:
- The Allegory of the Cave
The Allegory of the Cave is a story told by Plato, a Greek philosopher, in book VII (7) of his work, The Republic, in which he muses about his ideal society. The allegory represents the rejection of reality, usually because of a fear of the unknown.
Let’s take a look at the allegory itself (a translation can be found here and a video explaining the allegory can be seen below - from TEDtalks).
The allegory goes as follows:
A group of men are tied to up in a cave, facing away from the cave's entrance. They have lived their whole lives in this cave with a fire to keep them warm. They cannot turn their heads and have no knowledge of the outside world. From the fire, they see shadows on the walls and sometimes sounds echo through the cave (as people and things pass by the mouth of the cave). They name these shadows and sounds and this small view of the world is their reality because it is all they know.
Suddenly, one of the men escapes his bonds and goes outside. He sees the world but does not believe it is real. He is told that everything he is seeing outside of the cave is indeed real and that it was the shadows that were not real but fake representations of the more complicated real things from outside the cave. For example: the shadow image of a dog was a fake representation of the complex life form that is a real dog.
At first, he resists this knowledge but after continuing to experience the world, knows that what he is told is true. The man returns to the cave and feels displaced (like he doesn’t belong) from everything he had known. He tries to tell the other men inside the cave about the outside world but they do not believe him. He knows what this is like, he had gone through it too and decides he must show them so that they can understand. They must see the “real” world with their own eyes to understand how much of an illusion (fake) the world inside the cave is. But the men refuse to leave the cave, refuse to believe in anything outside of the world they have always known.
And this is the key point in the allegory - that someone who has seen the truth is not believed by others who choose to remain ignorant. Another variation of the this is that people choose to close their eyes and don't see what they don’t want to believe.
My favorite most recent example of this is from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The novel in a nutshell is about a society where books are illegal and firemen are paid by the government not to stop fires but to start them - specifically to burn books. The novel's protagonist Guy Montag has been compulsively collecting books for years and hiding them without ever reading them. This is problematic because he is a fireman. The reader sees him start to question his society and the values that the society pushes onto its citizens. But as he realizes the emptiness in his life and the lives of others around him, he feels responsible for helping them to see what a sham their overly simulated lives are. This is shown in his relationship with his wife who is obsessed with TV and is so unhappy with her life in the beginning of the book that she tries to commit suicide. But the more he tries to include his wife in his awakening, the more she withdraws from him, despite his discovery possibly brining her happiness. In the end, she throws his knowledge out the window (literally, in the form of books) and leaves him, acting as though she's never known him. All this because it was easier to be unhappy in her unchanged world than to struggle through a new reality and work towards her happiness.
This is an AMAZING example of the allegory because it is so clear that Guy is the man from the cave who saw the real world and that his wife is symbolic of the men in the cave who refuse to see the truth.
Because of this, you know that a text is referencing the allegory when a character refuses to see the truth about a person or situation, especially when his/her fear is motivated by a fear or change and a need for things to stay the same. - Gender Issues
Now, this topic can be incredibly complex but at its core, it is generally analyzed in one of two ways:
1. The way an author depicts which gender has greater power in a society (patriarchy v. matriarchy).
2. Whether or not a character portrays his/her stereotypical gender role and what it says about this person and their society.
In the first instance, a text will show a clear difference in the power that men or women have in a society. Traditionally, in literature and in history, men have had more power than women, and women were forced to rely on men economically (for money) and for social status (to have a social group to belong to). Societies where all of the power goes to men simply because they are male is known as a patriarchy (the opposite of this, matriarchy, a society that favors women with power, is seen a lost less often in literature). This is an important keyword that you'll use from the time you enter middle school until you're dead. If a book has too many male characters and not enough female ones, you can bet someone will say it is because of the patriarchal values of the writer or of the time period it was written in.
My favorite example of this theme is Beowulf. In Beowulf, an epic story so old no one knows who wrote or when, a warrior named Beowulf defeats a monster name Grendel, goes on recount his life as a King (which only happens because he is able to slay Grendel), and how he killed a dragon while being King. The story is filled with men warriors who are trying to slay these beasts but the only prominent female character is Grendel's mother who doesn't even have her own name... What does that say about how the author and the society of that time feel about women? Well, a whole lot.
The fact that she has no name and is mentioned in relation to a male character shows that she is not her own person but that she is an extension of Grendel. This is ridiculous because if Beowulf was a video game, Grendel's mother would a be a boss battle. In the story, Beowulf kills Grendel in a scene that is remarkably short and then has to deal with the wrath of the beast's mother. His fight with Grendel's mother lasts much longer, is filled with drama and building tension. Grendel's mother literally shows up in the castle Beowulf is staying in and start killing people in anger. Obviously, she's a lot more formidable than her son. Beowulf even cuts off her head (very big Medusa reference here) and holds it in triumph. And yet despite being the bigger opponent of these two fights, because women at the time the story was written were mothers and and wives who had to listen to their husbands, were not allowed to have money of their own, and could be punished by their husbands as though were children - or daughters who were raised to be silent and get married to whoever their fathers chose - Grendel's mother was not given a name. Instead like all of these women in history, Grendel's mother is defined in terms of the man in her life, her son Grendel. All of the other MALE side characters who barely had any effect on the plot? They all had names. And if that doesn't say something about how women were overlooked in literature at this time or during this period in history, I don't know what does.
Another example of a patriarchal society can be found in Gennifer Albin's teen fiction novel Crewel. The fantasy story is set in a world where a select number of girls have the ability to weave the reality they live in. The overall idea is so fantastical it's a bit hard to explain. But basically, girls can put at the air and completely create new rivers and infrastructure through their weaving. This a great power and because of it, when a girl is found to have this ability, she is taken from her home (by force if necessary) and given to the government. These women have immense power, they can basically create whatever they want, and yet the government is made up if male figures that parade these women around in pretty dresses, threatening to hurt the people they love if they don't do as they're told. Do you see a difference in power between the male and female characters here? I think it's pretty obvious. This is an obvious portrayal of a patriarchal society. This is made even MORE obvious when we take into account the fact that the women are the ones with real powers (their ability to weave reality) and yet, the men have the most power in the society just because they are male. Can they create things out of thin air? No. But does it matter? No. Because they are men and as historically usual, they have all the power.
So if a book has a lot more male characters what do you think the book is trying to say about who is seen as more important in society? If a female character does not have a name, what does that say about her identity and how the society defines her? How about the reverse situation? And if there is a clear difference between the men and women in a novel, one of the sexes being subservient to the other? Well, it's likely the author is trying to say something about who has more power in society and whether that is a good or bad thing. Try to keep your eye out for these power struggles in your readings.
The second instance in which gender is analyzed in novels is when looking at whether a character conforms to gender stereotypes. For example, do the girls act feminine and do the boys masculine or vice versa. What is an author trying to say when he writes about a masculine girl and a feminine boy? A lot and all of it depends on context.
This specific part of gender analysis is more geared towards classic literature since (for the most part) we've evolved past forcing women to like the color pink and cooking and putting her home life above her career and goals. And the same can be said for men. Traditionally, it was believed that men weren't supposed to cry, men were supposed to love in a detached way, and that they were the sole providers for their family. Many of us see this way of thinking as outdated, but for authors like Hemingway, whose works were written between the 1920's and 40's, an emotional male character was easily dominated by a strong female character. The female character was often broken inside (which is why she did not act feminine) and felt pleasure forsaking the weaker male character. Hemingway painted this break from gender stereotypes as toxic to relationships.
This is best seen his novel The Garden of Eden, where a man has recently been married to a women. But the woman likes to dress in trousers (pants, which at the time was unheard of), cuts her hair short like a boy, and even in bed, she wants to be him and him to be here. This is a complete undoing of the accepted gender roles in their society and though he loves his wife, her weirdness forces him to look for a relationship with someone more conventional when he starts having an affair with a very feminine girl during their travels. He loves his wife but he also resents her. He considers himself weak for letting his wife shift their gender roles but does nothing to discourage her. Some would even go as far as to say that his self-serving wife is the man in the relationship and that the way he continues to put off confronting her makes him the woman. Traditionally, a lot of people would have agreed to this analysis. And on a closer analysis, why does the wife decide to look male? Hemingway suggests that she enjoys the perks of being seen like a man - the decisions making power, the respect, etc. And who wouldn't? Hemingway make us think about these roles. Are they good or bad? Is changing roles good or bad? The answers to these questions say a lot about an author and the time period during which the text was written.
More contemporary literature will also go into GBTL (gay/bi-sexual/transgender/lesbian) analysis but most of the books you will be assigned in school will focus in the top to gender issues.
I hope this helps some of you with what to look for while reading a school assignment. Please let me know if you agree with any of the ideas mentioned above or if you have anything to add. Check back for the next two installments and I can't wait to hear from you.
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