Literature in Life

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Literature in Life

Literature is the expressed influence of communities and the individuals in societies. Literature spans culture, beliefs, and attributes the necessary component for corroborating how literature reflects, and portrays communities. The language from literature helps gives culture explanation of live in different society. Literature that is defined by the culture aspect, gives details about such fascinating and affluent information or context. Certain works, and words used in literature can help the reader understand and describe the sense of the community being read in the story. In addition, it is not uncommon for people to write about an imaginary community that is based from their own community. Community affects how we write; writing can also affect the community. It is clear, communities influence authors of literature and literature can influence communities.

There are many ways we express ourselves and language is one major way we express ourselves. There are many different languages in our cultures. Within those culture are subculture and those subculture has different dialects. People add slang or shorten words to make the language their own. This has an immense impact on how authors write. Some authors will attempt to use proper English, but often times will use words common to their community.

In “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara (DiYanni, 2007, p. 427-432), we witness the effects of community on literature first hand. The characters in the story constantly use slang that is associated with post slavery African-Americans. One of the best examples is when Sylvia describes Miss Moore as a woman with “…nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup” (p. 427). Other slang words s...

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... a community.

In conclusion, Authors obviously can have a great influence on a community. However, the author was also probably influenced by his or her own community. They incorporate their own heritage and slang into their literary works. Many times, they will even write about their own community. Therefore, it is obvious that community has a great affect on authors and an author can greatly affect a community.

References DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama. New York: McGraw-Hill. Goodlad, L.M.E. & Bibby, M. (2007). Goth: Undead Subculture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press

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