cindy huang 10K

article chosen: "australia day can be a time for hope, not resentment" by stan grant

i’m sure that most of you will remember studying jane eyre in year 8. so what exactly did we
learn about jane eyre? we learnt that the book was about a female character who was far
from the stereotypical female in the 1800s. this new kind of main lead rejected the idea of a
beautiful heroine in favour for one that is independent and strong. the book was, and still is
revolutionary and symbolised what many females of the time wanted but could not have. it
was an extraordinary and eye opening book. jane eyre, along with other famous novels and
satires such as animal farm, lord of the flies and to kill a mockingbird, is an example of how
literature can help us reflect back and educate ourselves and future generations to come.
literature not only does this, but can also help us teach others empathy, communicate
emotions and share our experiences. even smaller pieces of writing such as children’s
stories and fables also have a purpose; to teach those younger than us what is right, what is
wrong and what is ethical.

one of the reasons literature is so important is because it allows us to reflect back on the
stories of humanity and educate the next generation. as we learnt in one of our wide reading
articles, stan grant quotes chief plenty coups, saying “education is your most powerful
weapon” he told his people. with education he said they would be “the white man’s equal”,
without it “you are his victim” although chief plenty coups was emphasising the importance of
education to his people so that they wouldn’t be discriminated, he still makes a valid point
about the significance of education- both for us and later generations. the novel uncle tom’s
cabin is a prime example of this. the book (which was about the story of an african-american
slave) brought to light the horrors of slavery. the book helped to inform the unaware public of
the cruelty of slavery, causing a havoc and empowering the anti-slavery movement in the
north of america and possibly tipping the american civil war into motion, a war that ended in
the abolition of slavery. this shows how literature can help educate us on what we were like,
what we are now and how to improve ourselves and our society for the future.

another reason as to why literature can be ‘a guiding light’ is because it acts as a medium to
communicate experiences with each other, fictional or non-fictional. this enables us to teach
one another empathy which is vital to our humanity. without compassion and benevolence
we as the human race would no longer be human or humane. it has also been proven that
reading literary novels helps expand people’s capacity to comprehend what the emotions
and thoughts of others are. emanuele castano and david kidd, a social psychologist and PhD
candidate respectively, conducted five different investigations where they gave participants
different excerpts from a range of genres, including fictional and non-fictional works.
afterwards, the participants undertook an exam that gauged their ability to be able to
understand how other people think and feel. the candidates that had read pieces of genre
fiction had remarkably low test results. however, the candidates that had read novels with
literary merit that was widely acknowledged received results that were significantly higher,
implying that their empathetic capacity had been increased due to the reading assignment
they had been given prior to the test. the results of this study strongly supports arguments
that literature helps to expand emotional capacity.

in conclusion, literature can influence our lives in many ways. by influencing our thoughts
and beliefs, literature can, literally, can impact history. literary works us give the power to
educate and help others, so that everyone can be develop into the best person that we can
be. it also serves as a guiding light into human experience as without it we would be less
empathetic and cruel creatures. as the famous american philospher hannah arendt said “the
death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall
into barbarism”.