Books and Ourselves

How are you created or defined? What circumstances generate who you are? And can we know who we are? How a human being is created or defined is always in question. “What forces have come across the generations to create who you are today?

I believe the types of books I have read create my “identity” and the books I will read in the future will recreate my identity. Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle say it best in their book, An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory. They state, “to identify with a person in a novel or play is to identify oneself, to produce an identity for oneself. It is to give oneself a world of fictional people to start to let one’s identity merge with that of fiction.  It is, finally, also to create a character for oneself and to create oneself as character” (70).

Literature is the space in which questions about the nature of personal identity are most provocatively articulated (Bennet & Royle 130).

            My interpretation of their claim is that we recognize a characteristic or a complex in a “character” that we ourselves (the readers) possess. I have a tendency to read the same genre of books, for example- Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, and North & South. I think I read these books because I sometimes possess a melancholy side of my “personality” and I “identify” with the female characters. The genre of books I started reading as a young girl greatly impacted me. My opinion of how we create ourselves through reading fiction comes from my belief that what we read will stay with us forever. From reading we learn empathy, how to react to situations, and we develop a deeper understanding of language. As a result of reading, I believe we create ourselves. We become what we wish to become through the observation of these characters.

Characters are the life of literature: they are the objects of our curiosity and fascination, affection and dislike, admiration and condemnation (Bennett & Royle, 62).

            Reading sparks one main question of humanity, such as, ‘Who am I?’ Literature is where one develops character or identity, which provides the answer to the question listed above. Reading diverse books can construct one identity, one person. After all, a person is a unity of dissimilar forces and an individual is the unity of various divisions.

Through the power of identification, through sympathy and antipathy, they can become part of how we conceive ourselves, a part of who we are (Bennett & Royle, 63).

            The characters that we read about and experience are the life of literature. They inspire, engage, and interest the readers. Readers will learn vicariously through reading about the lives, events, and circumstances of the characters they come to love. We learn from the characters we read about; we learn what it is to be human- female and male. Learning through fictional characters is somewhat paradoxical, but nonetheless very effective. Bennett and Royle state, “To identify with a person in a novel or play is to identify oneself, to produce an identity for oneself. It is to give oneself a world of fictional people, to start to let one’s identity merge with that of a fiction. It is, finally, also to create a character for oneself, to create oneself as a character ” (70). When reading, readers always identify themselves and think about themselves in reference to either a single character or multiple characters.

We construct ourselves through and in words, in the image-making , story-generating power of language (Bennett & Royle, 64).

            The concept of Nature vs. Nurture also comes into play with the assertion that readers learn how to behave through reading. Nature vs. Nurture is best described as a debate which concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences ("nurture," i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits. Reading has taught me, to some extent, how to be a “woman.” Nature did not make me a woman; nature gave be the anatomy of a woman but did not teach me what being a “woman” entails. I learned how to be a “woman” from language, text, and representations; which was provided to me, to some extent, through literature. Basically, I am individual, unique, and genuine; but paradoxically, I am also mimicry. Therefore, Nature vs. Nurture is interconnected in the attempt for every human to learn the essence of “humanity.”

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is one of the first feminist novels ever written, and therefore provides a perfect example of a character who is learning to become a “woman” along with the reader. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage and stays at home with the children all day living a very dull and empty life. This was a common position for American women at the turn of the 19^th Century. Edna is trapped in a misogynistic world and as a result she is stifled and unsatisfied, as a woman. However, through her personal growth and self-awakening she breaks from the shackles of being controlled by a male dominating society by leaving her husband and children for freedom. She gets her own home and takes in a lover. As a female reader, I am not only inspired to live my own life and live the way I want without care of the societal norms, but I am also provided with a looking glass into the lives of the women that fought for the freedom and equality that I am obliged to have.

…she had resolved never again to belong

 to another than herself. (The Awakening, 103)

As we read, we adapt certain characteristics and behaviors of the characters we read. Readers take on personalities they wish to emulate. We adapt to pretense and we are what we habituate. This pretense appears in Maxine Hong’s Woman Warrior, the narrator attempts to be a heroic figure, but she isn’t a heroine in the traditional sense of the word. She speaks of courage, strength, and war; however, she is not a “warrior” in the traditional sense. She is a warrior writer. We are all acting on this stage called life, however, I am not saying that this acting is necessarily false. Readers compare themselves to heroic figures and adapt to what is asked of us in today’s world and therefore we merely emulate different aspects of each heroic character we encounter.

So many have come to dwell behind a panarchy mask

Lost between the delusive dimensions of identity

Unable to perceive that which is deemed real

                     Are you the mask of your identity or are you real? (Façade)

Everyone is molded into who they are by what surrounds them whether it be people, books, or television. Manners, style, and even quirks are taken from somewhere, possibly literature. Through taking these attributes from various characters we create ourselves as a unique, individual. This is not to say that we are “fake” creations, simply that we are all, to an extent, the tinker toys of humanity, taking bits and pieces off what we witness or experience and we build ourselves with this attained knowledge.

A strong example of someone adopting an opinion of a writer is David Lurie, the protagonist from Disgrace, written by J. M. Coetzee. David Lurie is a womanizing literature professor. He has an affair with a student and leaves work after he’s found out. He goes to live with his daughter, Lucy on her farm in South Africa, shortly after Apartheid. It is there that Lucy asks her father, “’Have you thought about marrying again?” his response is, ‘to someone of my own generation, do you mean? I wasn’t made for marriage, Lucy. You have seen that for yourself.’[…]” He goes on to quote William Blake, he says, “Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires” (Disgrace, 69). David’s quoting of William Blake is proof that he has adopted Blake’s belief, pertaining to the idea of controlling desires and fashioned himself as a character of Blake’s.

            Creating ourselves through reading literature occurs through self-reflection. Self-reflection is a major part of reading. In reference to self-reflection, Socrates is quoted as saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 38a). This opinion states that we can only truly reach our full potential if we study ourselves. And if the theory that we create ourselves through literature than it is also true that we must study ourselves in response to literature. Once a novel has been finished it is natural and imperative for the readers to pause and think about what they have just read. Thinking about yourself in

relation to someone else, perhaps a character from a novel is a form of self-reflection. This act of reflection is how we, the readers, create ourselves and learn about ourselves from others.

                        A true reflection of reading is attained before a reading (prediction), during a reading (questioning), and after a reading (reflection). This process creates a vast separation from “me” and others: this is where the truest image of yourself can be attained. Literature is both a descriptive and prescriptive, providing insight into ourselves and the selves we wish to attain.

             

Works Cited

Hockman, Sheri. Façade (a tritina). 2010.

 http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/facade-a- tritina. Web.

Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. New York: Penguin, 1999. Print.

Bennett, Andrew and Nicholas Royle. An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory.

Malaysa: Pearson, 2009. Print.

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Bedford St. Martins, 2000. Print