The characters, conflict, and setting which an author chooses in order to tell a story directly reflect thei world and beliefs. In this way, literature is the mirror of life because it demonstrates the values and perspective of the author, who writes from a particular place and historical context.
Even a dystopian novel like The Hunger Games is a reflection of the author's concerns about humanity. In this work, a totalitarian government has isolated its populace and then created a sport out of sacrificing its children as a means of entertainment for the wealthy. The novel reveals both the strengths of family and friendship in the face of such a government and the powerlessness that exists to change such a controlling regime; these horrific games have already existed for more than seven decades. A book like this mirrors life because it reflects a concern about governments with far-reaching tentacles of...
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power. It reflects the disparity of wealth, which is a common concern in our own world. In Katniss's world, citizens who live in the Capitol are blissfully unconcerned with the struggles of people like her family who struggle to find enough to eat. Instead, they obsess over superficial matters like transforming their bodies to mirror works of art. It is easy to find parallels in our own modern society, which reflects an indifference toward poverty and a hyperfocus on superficiality. The conflict inThe Hunger Games also touches on the idea of censorship, which is a growing concern in modern societies. In this work, the government is able to more fully control the districts because it has eliminated free speech, even employing "peacekeepers" to ensure that political dissidents in the districts are duly punished.
By contrast, consider a work like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This work reflects the concerns of an entirely different world. The Bennet girls face a society that offers them few opportunities as women, and their mother is desperate to marry them off because, ultimately, marriage is their survival plan. Through the choice of Charlotte Lucas, the work reveals the way some women chose less-than-desirable husbands because they were willing to choose security over romance. It also reveals the fiery spirit of women like Elizabeth, who were willing to risk it all in order to find men whom they believed their equal. Though women still face similar options in marriages today, this work reflects the particular struggles of women in Austen's society to directly influence their own lives.
Authors craft their stories out of their own experience, knowledge, and concerns. In this way, literature mirrors the life of each author.
The statement that "literature is a mirror of life" may appear strange at first. One might ask the question how works of literature, where there is a clear sequence of action and an interesting story, can be the mirror of everyday life. Indeed, life is often boring and could feel pointless on many occasions. Literature, however, can be said to be the mirror of life, because it reflects and comments on aspects of things people encounter in their daily lives.
Even futuristic novels such as The Hunger Games can reflect life, despite the fact that its world is alien to the modern human being. Th main character, Katniss, struggles with issues like love, family, and death. These are familiar concepts to everyone who is alive today. Katniss's struggle reflects how many teenagers react to life's difficulties today. She is easy to identify with, although her world is alien, because she is human. She loves. She is afraid. She does not understand exactly how to handle the stirrings of first love.
The same is true when going centuries into the past. The play Hamlet by Shakespeare, for example offers not only the story of a prince and his dead father, but also how this prince is human. His reaction to his father's death is utterly human. He experiences grief an loss like any son who loses a father. When he realizes his father has been murdered, he is outraged and wants revenge, which is another human reaction. So, although the worlds of royalty and Shakespeare's time are alien to us, Hamlet's feelings are not. This is why Shakespeare's work can be regarded as relevant even today.
Aspects of life are reflected even in works of fantasy and horror. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the vampire is a creature of fiction. However, the feelings Mina experiences when Lucy dies or when Jonathan returns ruined from his visit to Dracula's castle are very human. As human beings, readers can identify with these feelings. As such, Mina is a reflection of life and how we experience it.
Poetry is perhaps the type of literary effort that best reflects life. It shows the reader how the poet sees life. The poet asks the reader to enter his world and share it with him. In fact, this is what any author does, regardless of the specific thing being written.
Literature holds up the mirror of other people and other lives to the life we as readers live. This reflection can teach, inspire, make us laugh, or horrify us. This is the beauty and the joy of reading.
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