Sorry for the hassle, but I’m pretty desperate. It’ll be my last SAT before college
Should books portray the world realistically or idealistically?
Books serve to educate the world on its eclectic cultures, religions, and ways of life. They bring insight, novel viewpoints, and room of rumination for their readers, and bring them a step closer to understanding human nature and other mysteries of the world. Several examples from modern literature elucidate the fact that books need to be straightforward and not overly idealistic.
In the renowned book, Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri conflates a series of realistic short stories that teach readers about Indian culture, morals, and love. Her stories revolve around the recognition that human nature is flawed but not unfixable, that love is ephemeral, and that cultures have the same inherent basis. Lahiri does nothing to “make pretty” the problems of the world, and several stories revolve around cheating, angst, and death. However, students all over the country are still required to read Interpreter of Maladies in high school, and an overwhelmingly high percentage of these students believe that this novel has helped them understand society, different cultures, and human nature. The blunt realism and failure to illustrate events in a blatantly optimistic manner only develops readers’ trust in this book’s messages.
Similarly, Night, a novel by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, successfully demonstrates the horror of Nazi imprisonment by portraying the world in a realistic light. Night documents the capture and release of Jewish citizens in Germany during World War II. Unlike authors of children’s novels, in which families sneak out of the death camp Auschiwtz during the day (an impossible feat), Wiesel is unafraid to recognize and depict the ugly truth: he writes that screaming babies were regularly tossed into fires, children were killed in front of their parents, and worst of all, parents and family members turned against each other just to get a morsel of food. These unfiltered horrors, manifold in the book, shed light of the workings of the Nazi party, on the cruelty and human violation endured in Jewish internment camps. Readers catch a glimpse and forever empathize with the people who went through the Holocaust, because of Wiesel’s frank descriptions.
Careful analysis of Interpreter of Maladies and Night leads to the conclusion that book should, indeed, be honest about the world. Idealistic books may be good for relaxation and fun, but they fail to deliver any substance or any knowledge. Perhaps the realistic world shown in books in terrifying and uncouth, but that is the world we have to endure daily.