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American writer, Dani Shapiro, once said “I started realising that the themes running through all of my novels were really haunting and obsessing me about my own life” (Dani Shapiro). Authors – whether it may be intentional or unintentional – reflect prevalent current world issues through the plotlines and characters that they develop. When analyzing the context or background of a written work, it is clear as to how certain themes are influenced through the author and into the writing. Sometimes, characters in a story may take on different perspectives depending on the setting or how a character decides to interpret a scenario.
There is also sometimes a struggle shown when a character is in a dilemma; choosing between right and wrong. Furthermore, society may implicate the wrongdoings or mistakes upon other characters due to the expediency that society perceives. When examining several pieces of literature, the existence of underlying themes serves to enlighten the reader about various societal issues. The themes of perspective, moral reasoning, and scapegoatism appraise this fact through the many short stories investigated in class.
The perspective or point of view in any piece of literature serves to prove the prevalence of certain societal predicaments.
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Proficient in: Moral
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“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”
Ron Carlson’s short stories, Bigfoot Stole My Wife and I Am Bigfoot tells a story from two different perspectives – a compulsive gambler named Rick who thinks that his wife was kidnapped by bigfoot, and one from Bigfoot himself. After gambling at the racetrack, Rick finds his home in a mess: “There was a spilled Dr.
Pepper on the counter and the fridge was open. The smell of Bigfoot. It was hideous. Half of Trudy’s clothes are gone, her collie, who I guess Bigfoot stole too” (Carlson #). From this, Rick extrapolates the idea that Bigfoot did in fact steal his wife. In I Am Bigfoot, bigfoot states that he did not steal Rick’s wife, but simply called for her instead, and she followed. The evidence in these short stories shows how one’s personal experiences and opinions can alter one’s perspective.
A major discrepancy in Rick’s perspective is that he smells bigfoot’s scent in his home. Assuming that bigfoot is an urban legend – a fictional story – Rick could have never possibly known what bigfoot smells like. Ultimately, from the discrepancies seen in Bigfoot Stole My Wife, the reader assumes that Rick’s wife left him for another man because of his apparent gambling issues. Unable to accept the daunting truth of his wife’s disappearance, Rick decides to twist his own perspective in this scenario. This issue is seen reflected with people in today’s society; denial in one’s perspective. Humans put on a mask, or personality, to present an acceptable display and hope that nobody will see the truth. This is primarily a defense mechanism that humans deploy in order to not feel worthless and ashamed (Leary 2013). Another short story that deals with the theme of perspective is The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. This story tells the perspective of the wolf from the original story of the Three Little Pigs, and how the truth of what actually happened was altered.
According to the text, the wolf, or Alexander T. Wolf as he claims, was looking to borrow sugar from the pigs to bake a cake for his grandmother’s birthday: “ the wolf, was making a birthday cake for his dear granny. He had run out of sugar. So he walked down the street to ask his neighbour (the pigs) for a cup of sugar” (Scieszka 1). While knocking at the pigs’ doors, Alexander sneezes, causing the incompetently built homes of the first and second pigs to collapse. The pigs are then found dead under the remains of their homes, so Alexander decides to eat the pigs since he did not want a good dinner to go to waste: “That whole darn straw house fell down. And right in the middle of the pile of straw was the First Little Pig – dead as a doornail. It seemed like a shame to leave a perfectly good ham dinner lying there in the straw. So the wolf ate it up” (Scieszka 1-2). At the end of the story, the narrators describe how the story of the Three Little Pigs was altered by news outlets The news reporters found out about the two pigs he had for dinner. They figured a sick guy going to borrow a cup of sugar didn’t sound very exciting. So they jazzed up the story with all that ‘huff and puff’ and ‘blow your house down’ stuff. (Scieszka 3)
Although simple, this story proves how in today’s society, media modifies the stories of others solely for an increase in revenue and popularity. Taking into account the perspectives of the victims of the media, an image is painted for these victims, whether it may be a good image or bad image, prejudicial implications from others may occur. In the case of this story, Alexander T. Wolf was in fact trying to do a good deed, but the media painted an image of a victim upon him, causing society to presume him as a villain. Therefore, this is how the theme of perspective exhibits the current societal issues of shunning away from the truth, and the dangers of the media.
As humans, deciding between what is right and what is wrong is an everyday obstacle that is inevitable. Hernando Tellez’s short story, Just Lather, That’s All is a story that encompasses the theme of moral reasoning. The story follows a barber during a civil war in Colombia who is on the opposing side of rebels to his client, Captain Torres, who executes rebels. With his shaving razor easily at hand, ready to kill Captain Torres, the barber experiences a dilemma as to whether or not he should murder the Captain. At the end of the story, the barber lets him leave alive, then Captain Torres tells the barber “‘They told me that you’d kill me. I came to find out. But killing isn’t easy. You can take my word for it.’ And he headed on down the street” (Tellez 5). The theme of moral reasoning shown in this short story investigates the current world issues of the morality of murder.
According to an article from UCLA’s Newsroom, people often rely on violent vengeance to protect themselves (Fiske 2015). The barber, being a part of the opposing side of Captain Torres, wanted to protect himself and others on his side in order to possible be the successors of the civil war. Ultimately, the barber makes his decision when he says this: Damn him for coming, because I'm a revolutionary and not a murderer. And how easy it would be to kill him. And he deserves it. Does he? No! What the devil! No one deserves to have someone else make the sacrifice of becoming a murderer. What do you gain by it? Nothing (Tellez 4).
When looking at his decision in a psychoanalytic approach, we see the barber siding with the super egotistical. As a population in whole, especially when dealing with the morality behind murder, being able to eliminate vindictive instincts is always the right thing to do. Looking at this through the eyes of the barber in Just Lather, That’s All, dealing with the psychological and societal implications of murder is avoided, therefore allowing him to move on in his life, practicing the occupation that he loves. In addition, Willa Cather’s short story, Paul’s Case, also exhibits the theme of moral reasoning. This short story follows a seventeen-year-old boy named Paul who travels to New York to escape from his undesirable life in Pittsburgh and live in the luxuries he longs for. In the end, Paul commits suicide since he refuses to live the life he has back in Pittsburgh.
The theme of moral reasoning plays into this story through the means of how Paul got the money to spend on his luxuries in New York: “ but yesterday afternoon that he had been sent to the bank with Denny & Carson’s deposit, as usual There was two thousand dollars in checks, and nearly a thousand in the bank notes which he had taken from the book and quietly transferred to his pocket” (Cather 9). When relating back to the theme of choosing between right and wrong, unlike the barber in Just Lather, That’s All, Paul is seen siding with the id – the personality structure that coincides human instinct.
The negative consequences of Paul choosing to exploit the riches of the company he works for to live an illusionary life of luxury in New York is the addictiveness of money. As a society, deciding whether or not one should go to the extremities of theft for selfish reasons is a constant and apparent internal struggle. While this materialistic addiction is not a chemical addiction, it does involve compulsive behavior – in this case, an addiction to the good feeling that comes from receiving money or possessions, which can ultimately lead to negative consequences and harm the individual's well-being (Gregoire 2014). The harmful consequences in Paul’s Case is his suicide, which shows how going to these extremities causes one’s self-destruction, and is how moral reasoning can influence the outlook of one’s life. Therefore, the ultimate consequences of moral reasoning are apparent through the short stories and is indefinitely in existence in today’s society.
The instinctual act of blaming others for one’s own wrongdoings is a prevalent issue to mankind. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula Le Gruin tells a story about how the existing evil in a utopian society is pinned upon a child locked in a closet in the basement of a beautiful public building. The child in the closet is described to be suffering: “In the room a child is sitting. the child has no understanding of time or interval The child used to scream for help at night, and cry a good deal it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day” (Le Gruin 4-5). The story also mentions how the people who live in the city of Omelas try to understand the suffering of the child: “They all know that it has to be there they all understand that their happiness, beauty of their city depends wholly on this child’s abominable misery” (Le Gruin 5). The symbolism of the child suffering is reflected into today’s society; the inevitable suffering of others. Living in a first world country, the things that we have all come from the suffering of others. For example, many of the commodities in which we have come from sweatshops.
According to Vision Launch, about 90% of the clothing that one wears comes from sweatshops in a third world country (Lombardo 2016). With that percentage being so high, the suffering of those who create clothing is deemed impossible to alleviate. Any human shopping at any mall may have this thought at the back of one’s mind. It is very similar to how those that live in the city of Omelas go on with their day-to-day lives, while knowing that a child is currently suffering. The ones who decide to walk away from the city – a very miniscule amount of people – are unable to justify the suffering of that one child, showing how although as a society some individuals may try to fight for the right cause in any situation, but those people are constantly defeated in numbers, leading to little or no progress in terms of improvement for that issue. The theme of scapegoatism is explicitly shown in The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, and in the bigger picture of mankind of how the suffering of others is inescapable.
This theme is also prevalent in Shirley Jackson’s famous story, The Lottery. The story follows a village’s annual lottery where an individual is sacrificed for the sake of the crops. The obvious scapegoat used in this story is the human that is sacrificed, where in this annual lottery it is a character named Tessie Hutchinson. At its simplest form, the lottery is performed for the village’s crops, where the scapegoat – human sacrifice – diminishes all chances of poorly grown crops. When looking at the story of The Lottery, a major discrepancy seen in how the characters execute the lottery is that none of them are aware of what happens to the crops if they do not preserve the tradition. The people living in the village are well aware of the fact that they are killing a human being for the slightest chance of having a good harvest. The problem seen in The Lottery is that nobody ever questions the act of murder – as if its rational only if done for this reason.
So not only is the scapegoat at every lottery is justified for the village’s crops, but the scapegoat suffers the ultimate mistake in which the village commits – continuing the tradition of the lottery. Similarly to The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, nobody ever retaliates the apparent issues seen in both stories, allowing scapegoatism to occur. Therefore, the suffering of others in the real world is seen reflected in several pieces of literature, and demonstrates the absence of human compassion. The themes of perspective, moral reasoning, and scapegoatism heavily prevail themselves into many works of literature, as a reflection of today’s society. Perspective has implications upon others in society that may deem an individual something in which they are not.
Moral reasoning is a continual struggle that prevails the dangers of choosing between the morally good and morally evil. Scapegoatism demonstrates the inevitable human suffering that is never acknowledged by others because of the innate fear of rebellion against the majority. When looking at society as a whole, one may question how the social construct of all aspects of society perseveres. Whether it may be the damaging actuality of people, media, money, murder, or fearfulness, all of these factors ultimately lead to the current societal issues that are prevalent today. Questioning such societal issues allows for individuals to grow more aware of the quintessential human integrity one possesses.
Literature And Society: The Effectiveness Of Themes. (2024, Feb 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/literature-and-society-the-effectiveness-of-themes-essay
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