The Knowledge Gained From Text
November, 26. 2018
Isabelle Humenny
How can authors teach you about yourself through a story? Authors use text to re-live and learn from their experiences and the experiences of others, therefore, teaching readers about the world through someone else’s eyes. Throughout the readings of, More Happy Than Not, Persepolis and Go Show The World, the reader will learn how much we really gain from the literature we read.
As soon as the first story is read to a child, they are instantly overwhelmed with new emotions, characteristics, settings, lessons, and curiosity. As a book is read, a story is being retold. If it’s a children’s book, a high school history textbook, or a YA novel, an experience is being re-lived. Each time an event is told, a fact and a story is uncovered. We are exposing our minds to a new world to experience, an unfamiliar feeling, or thought. We are constantly relating to the information we are exposed to, even in the slightest of ways. We learn to feel for the way a character may have felt in that moment, we put ourselves in the shoes of others. “We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to make yourself feel nothing so as to not feel anything – what a waste!” – Call Me By Your Name.
Secondly, no matter how you feel from information you receive, you are taking in lessons. Lessons that educate you on the mistakes, the hero’s, the victory and the sadness. All to help you as you enter the future. “These, a few of my heroes, maybe now your heroes too. Let’s look ahead at our lives, think of what we want to do” – Wab Kinew. In the authors shoes, sharing the knowledge they’ve collected throughout their lifetime can be an outlet for them, Adam Silvera, the author of More Happy Than Not, tells the story of his childhood through a character. His emotions, his experiences and his heartbreaks were all transformed into a story. This story has helped readers with the same experiences. Silvera shows young readers that your life is what you make it and that you are never finished learning about the world. “Nah, you’re more like a work in progress. We all are” – (More Happy Than Not). Authors open up their world to others, showing people that they aren’t alone.
Whether information is passed on by word of mouth, an article or a story, we are transported into the life of the subject. Similar to The Complete Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi. Her childhood is told through a haunting graphic novel, taking us through the times of the Iranian Revolution. This graphic novel, opens your eyes to the lives of others possibly the same age as yourself, how can your world seem so different from hers? A realization is made as you follow the fulfilled life of Marjane Satrapi. Everyone’s lives contrast so drastically, yet somehow, from the emotions we feel and the thoughts we are visited by, we are truly one in the same.
Both authors and readers learn about themselves through literature. Both writing and reading stories are beneficial to discovering ones self. Adam Silvera has an outlet for himself, Marjane Strapi documented her life and Wab Kinew keeps the past alive. But it is what you take from each story that matters. The world around you is constantly teaching you something new, whether it’s right outside your front door or through the eyes of someone else.