According to critic Louise Rosenblatt, literature enlarges our knowledge of the world and our ability to sympathize with others. In other words, what we read in various works of literature increase our understanding of what happens during different times in varied parts of the world. They also help us to understand, and show compassion for many of the hardships people have suffered throughout history. Black Boy, by Richard Wright, and My Antonia, by Willa Cather are two excellent examples of books that support Rosenblatts statement.
In Black Boy, the reader is given an insight to what it is like being a poor, young, African-American growing up in the South. My Antonia is a celebration of the past, and illustrates the difficulties and troubles of different people during the period of Immigration in America. Each book enlarges our knowledge and ability to sympathize with others in different and similar ways. Black Boy, the autobiography by Richard Wright, takes you into the life of a young African American boy growing up in the South.
It reveals many things about the customs, troubles, and flaws that people were forced to live with in the south. Black Boy vividly portrays the deprivation Wright and many other African Americans faced growing up. In the earlier years of Richards life, the book shows poverty, hunger, lack of emotional support, and miserable living conditions faced by Richard. It sheds a light onto the true circumstances many people have no choice but to live with growing up. However more importantly, it shows Richard’s response to these difficulties.
Living space for the four of us my mother, my brother, my father, and me was a kitchen and a bedroom [Wright 11]. Hunger stole upon me so slowly that at first I was not aware of what hunger really meantnow I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at me gauntlythis new hunger baffled me, scared me, made me angry and insistentI would find hunger nudging my ribs, twisting my empty guts until they ached [Wright 16]. Black Boy also brilliantly illustrates the ever-present prejudice against African-American men and women during this period in time.
Richards experiences, from selling KKK newspapers to being beaten up by white men giving him a ride home all display the ever present prejudicial perspective people had on life at that time. In the paling light I turned the pages and read the articles so brutally anti-Negro that goose pimples broke out over my skin [Wright 154]. Finally, Black Boy shows us that all the experiences that someone encounters wind up shaping their future, who they become. In Black Boy, different events such as the incident involving the speech at his graduation, and many others of his childhood experiences indoctrinated his life, and who he became.
When looked at in a wider perspective, all of his life experiences were combined to form Black Boy, his autobiography. Black Boy is an excellent example of Rosenblatts statement. Another book which gives us a better understanding of the world and a sympathy for people in it, is the novel My Antonia, by Willa Cather. My Antonia has been called nostalgic and elegiac because it celebrates the past. The inscription on the title page of My Antonia is a quote from Virgil, Optima dies… prima fugit, which means the best days are the first to flee. The childhood days were best for Jim Burden, as he discovers when he leaves home.
Each scene seems immediate and vivid, as if time has been suspended. This sentimental feeling about the past seems to reflect who Cather was as a writer and especially a human, more than anyone else, but is also the view many people in todays society have that the past is a steadfast, incommunicable [Cather 238] commodity which must be forever cherished. Many themes in this semi-autobiographical novel teach us about the world in that time period, and the people who lived in it. Another main theme in My Antonia is the journey of immigrants from foreign lands to America. Often times, this process was very difficult.
As displayed by the Shimerdas, many families who were well-off and well respected in their initial country, were forced to start over when venturing off to America. Language, living conditions, and life positions were among the factors of ones life that changed when an immigrant family traveled to America. For instance, the Mr. Shimerda was a well-respected violinist in his homeland, with a good home and an influence on the culture. However, the Shimerdas were forced to start over when they came to America. Our neighbors lived in sod houses and dugouts comfortable, but not very roomy [Cather 12].
Even things that are taken for granted, such as language, gave the Shimerdas like any other immigrant family a disadvantage. They could not speak enough English to ask for advice, or even make their most pressing wants known [Cather 16]. My Antonia, as is such Black Boy as well, allegorically comments on the prejudice of a certain group of people. However, instead of African-Americans, the prejudice is now implied on the immigrant, working-class population. Two groups of people travel west to settle the prairie. The first group was the Americans from already established areas of the country, like Jim Burden’s grandparents from Virginia.
The second group was the newer immigrants from Europe who arrive with little money or experience in farming. There is some tension between the two groups. When the immigrant daughters come to town as hired girls they are looked down on by some of the town families. As a result of this, the immigrant girls have a very difficult time integrating into the American society. They already have many disadvantages, but when they are not given any respect or dignity it is virtually impossible for them to flourish. Those girls had grown up in the first bitter-hard times, and had gotten little schooling themselves [Cather 127].
Although Jim was somewhat influenced by other peoples opinions, he, thought the attitude of the town people toward these girls very stupid [Cather 129]. I always knew I would live long enough to see my country girls come into their own, and I have stated Jim [Cather 129]. He is right; most of the hired girls end up running successful farms and providing the strong American stock of the Midwest. The entire story of My Antonia from the symbolism to the themes to the actual plot reflect the idea that a novel can enlarge our knowledge of the world, and unquestionably allows us to sympathize with others.
Louise Rosenblatt was correct in her statement when she remarked that books enlarge our worldly knowledge and our ability to sympathize with others. My Antonia and Black Boy are two prime examples of that. However these two particular works of literature go far beyond that. They give us insight into two crucial periods of American history from the abnormal perspectives of two influential writers actual lives. These works illuminate these periods of time in the world, and truly allow us to sympathize with characters that have become living history.
