highlighting an element of literature by using your choice of at least three (3) works from two genres to support your ideas. (You could choose two poems and a play; two short stories and a poem, a poem, a play, and a story, etc.)

The Enlightened Man Page 01

THE ENLIGHTENED MAN

The Enlightened Man

Understanding Life through Literature

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Customer 's Affiliation Enlightened Page 02 Abstract This features the element of theme in literature as the most influential element in a reading . It discusses three literary works The Piece of String ' a short story written by Guy de Maupassant Theft ' another short story penned by Katherine Anne Porter , and The Unknown Citizen ' a poem written by . W .H . Auden . The themes in these works are explored and compared

, to show that literature has the power to enlighten a reader and to make him wiser in understanding life 's complexities . As a result , literature teaches a reader how to live a full , enlightened life .Enlightened Page 03 Life and Our Endless Questions

We have endless questions about life . As we go through each day celebrating one triumph after another , grieving over one tragedy after another , our questions about life pile up . We may be lucky enough to have these questions answered , or we may be left wondering about the answers until we stop asking , but we can deal with life and its questions by using the absolute power of insight . This intuitive understanding of life , seeing deeply into its value and its flaw , is one precious skill that can help us get through anything . But how do we hone this skill , how do we sharpen our insight ? We turn to Literature to train us

A Literary Man is an Enlightened Man

A short story . A poem . A play . A novel . These genres in literature can take our breath away once we see , once we perceive the insight they provide us . We can be left illuminated after we turn the last page , or read the last verse of a literary work . Because at the end of a reading we find ourselves having a deeper understanding of life , and as a result , a deeper understanding of ourselves , of the people around us and of the events that happen in our lives . The literary element that best provides insight is the theme , the fundamental idea about life explored in literary works . It expresses a generalization about life and its complexities . It helps us understand life in a most enlightening insightful way . As a result , we have the confidence to go through each day with the knowledge that we know , we understand , the depth of human nature and its tragedies and triumphs . Two short stories and one poem were chosen for discussion in this . They were chosen in the merit that their themes are powerful . The first short story is entitled The Piece of String ' written by Guy de Maupassant . The second short story is entitled Theft Enlightened Page 04

written by Katherine Anne Porter . The poem is entitled The Unknown Citizen ' penned by W . H . Auden

The Theme and Its Power to Illuminate

Literature reveals the human experience in such an artful way that it becomes a great vicarious journey for us , the readers . We discover things in life that we have never known before , concepts we have never heard of , perceptions we have never considered . After we put each book down , after the last page is flipped , we tell ourselves that there is so much more to this life than what we merely see and perceive Literature gives us the luxury to travel . We can travel through time by exploring the classics and science fiction we can travel across the world by exploring cultural literary works . Most importantly , we can travel within ourselves to see and evaluate how we perceive , how we feel about certain issues in our personal lives , in the society , and even the world

This highlights the element of theme in literature because of its power to illuminate . As opposed to other elements , the theme is the most difficult element to analyze because , for one , it is the central force of the literary work . A short story may have a thousand pages , but its theme is stated in just one sentence . All the other elements are well worth studying and are equally difficult to analyze , but of them has the advantage of illumination like the theme does . It is the heart of every literary work , and like any other entity , without the heart the literary work is useless . Discovering the theme helps the reader understand what the writer is getting at what the writer is really saying , what life-lesson is imbibed in a piece of literary work By discovering the theme , the reader becomes illuminated , and starts his journey into being an enlightened man

Enlightened Page 05 A Piece of String Corrupts a Life

The short story , The Piece of String ' reveals a harsh truth about human nature : reputation matters more than fact . The story has a simple plot . A character named Maire Hauchecorne was accused of an act that he did not commit . An enemy , M . Malandain , pointed him out as the person who picked up a lost pocketbook containing a big amount of money Hauchecorne merely picked up a piece of string from the road , so he was enraged by the accusation and started explaining himself to everyone . No one believed him , for he had a reputation for being a crafty man . When the pocketbook was returned by another person , Hauchecorne felt vindicated , but the townsfolk concluded that there was a conspiracy between him and the person who returned it they deemed his involvement in the act as an absolute fact . He was so distressed by this occurrence The fact that the villagers believed the gossip more than the truth gnawed at him , corrupted his life to the extent that he took to his bed sick with the injustice he suffered . At the last moment of his life he continued to insist that what he picked up was merely a piece of string This story makes a reader feel enraged and at the same time disheartened over the injustice suffered by the character . After reading the story , our understanding of human nature is expanded , made vast by the realization that most often , reputation matters more than truth This short story is one piece of literature that evokes a lot of emotions in the reader , and provides insight in each page . This is the kind of reading that makes an ordinary an enlightened man . The theme is sad and poignant , and well-taught

Who is the Real Thief

The short story , Theft ' reveals disillusionment and despair brought about by social forces . The main character , a young woman discovered that her purse made of golden cloth was stolen

Enlightened Page 06 from her apartment . She confronted the janitress about the incident , and discovered that it was indeed the woman who stole the purse . However , in the course of their confrontation the janitress succeeded in making the character feel as if she was the thief because of her elevated social status . The janitress claimed that the young woman 's social status positioned her in a better location for social advancement . This is a riveting read , because the reader is forced to take a side : does he sympathize with the social despair of the janitress , or with the rightful indignation of the young woman ? In this story , the incident of theft ceases to be an act of crime . It instead becomes a podium for the philosophical question : who is the real thief ? The theme of this story the delineation of one 's identity by social positions , is an enlightening idea for the reader . It gives him a question worthy of a scholarly debate : could society be blamed for the social hierarchy it formulated ? The separation of the rich from the poor , from those who have and those who don 't have , is so oppressive . This fact alone may justify the act of theft by the janitress . Because she is so oppressed by society , she is robbed by opportunities that would have been otherwise available to her , without this social oppression . Isn 't it then her right to take what is rightfully hers ? The reader is shaken into the realization that there are two sides to this act of crime , two definitions of theft . The story succeeds in making the reader think , and think critically for that matter

He Who is Not Known

The poem , The Unknown Citizen ' tells the story of an average man , a man whose absolute conformation to the rules of society was so flawless that the state found it appropriate to honor him with a marble monument . The marble monument shares the details of his conformed life He Enlightened Page 07

never broke the laws , and always met the goals expected of him . This satire ridicules this kind of life , a life so average that it is perfectly in consonance with the expectations of society . Auden 's

use of satirical humor is exemplified by his persona supposedly praising the average conformist , but really putting this conformist in ridule The title alone is satirical the conformist , ideal citizen is nameless he is unknown despite the fact that he did everything right in his life Instead

he is reduced into a code , JS /07 M 378 , conveying the message that this person is treated as a statistical datum , and nothing more . The humor imbibed in the verses makes it a great read . The If the unknown citizen led an insignificant life , why does he need to be investigated ? This satire is an important , effective comment on the treatment of individuals in modern society . It is very

effective in conveying the idea of man 's loss of personal identity . The poet reveals a theme worth using in the reader 's own life : the ridiculous concept of uniformity in society . The reduction of human beings into mere numbers or statistics shows an insensitive , inhuman society . Uniformity is good for inanimate objects , but not for living breathing , feeling individuals who are each so unique

The Influence of Society

All three literary works discussed here are commentaries on how society influences the human life . In the first story , The Piece of String ' we see how societal judgment can ruin a man . We arrive at a realization that the society has a large impact on how we live our lives . Its negative or positive perception of us greatly influences our happiness , or our despair . It proves the idea that no man can survive without good interpersonal relationships . The story also reveals how society puts more value into the reputation of a person than the acknowledgement of factual details about a person . It highlights and reprimands a societal flaw . Maupassant creates a

Enlightened Page 08 vicarious experience for a reader to feel how it is to be judged by society by reputation alone , without the factual details . In effect Maupassant leads the reader into a realm where societal

judgment is so important that it could kill a man . This story is so well-written that the reader has no trouble relating with the main character , as well as feeling his despair over the injustice he is plagued with

In the second story , we see how a societal privilege or its lack thereof , contribute to the despair and disillusionment of people . The author , Katherine Anne Porter , leads the reader into a moral debate . Who is the real thief , the one who steals material things or the one who steals opportunities ? Here we see how societal positions can unjustly place people in categories . In this

story , the antagonistic relationship between the privileged and the poor is emphasized . Porter 's prose is perfectly delivered that the reader is left amazed at having acquired a new radical definition of theft . The reader sees that theft , in the context of the story , has two sides to it

In the poem entitled , The Unknown Citizen ' we see how social conformation can reduce a man into a number , a statistical datum a nameless individual whose identity is determined by rules , and not by personal convictions . We see how a society can make a person function like an automaton , a person with no identity , no convictions . In the drab routine of everyday life , there is a danger that we may fall in the same category . This poem serves as a warning to its readers . It is as if the poet holds the reader 's hand and shows him the flaw of social uniformity , so that he may be properly warned

Enlightened Page 09 The themes in these literary works clearly strengthen the reader 's insight . It provides a deeper understanding of a person 's relationship with the society an understanding that needs to be internalized by the reader in to live a full life beyond the text , out in the real world . As students and lovers of literature , we always turn to literary works for insight about life , and as this shows , we will never fail to find it .Enlightened Page 10References

Auden , W . H (c1940 . Another Time . London : Curtis Brown , Ltd

Maupassant G .D (2007 . The Piece of String . The Literature Network Retrieved November 10 , 2007 from http /www .online-literature .com

Porter , K .A (c1958 . The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter New York : Harcourt Brace Company ...