English teachers and librarians often lament their students’ disinclination toward classical literature, specifically anything written before the 20th century. Not only do they believe that today’s young adults need the short, snappy, immediate (if you can call it that) prose of cell phone text messages, they will no longer read classic literature on their own, for pleasure, unless assigned, and even then, teachers are forced to test against cliff notes and search the Internet for evidence of plagiarized documents. With random predictions predicting the doom of paper and the downfall of traditional libraries, is it a waste of time to subject teenagers to the likes of Homer and other historical authors during this information age where little information is the truth? rule of the day?

For many students, who do not hesitate to complain, the language of the writers of the past is too harsh. Since people no longer speak and write as Shakespeare and Jane Austen did, it makes little sense for them to study these archaic modes of communication. After all, they could be developing PowerPoint presentations that are sure to be something more relevant to their future. Of course, the “too hard” theory is something English teachers should never succumb to or accept when rushing to defend century-old literature. The vast majority of students may not become experts in medieval literature, but everyone can benefit from self-discipline in reading othello, Beowulfgold Crime and Punishment provides.

Though surely, self-discipline is a timeless trait that goes beyond a study of English literature; could be drawn from a myriad of other disciplines such as geometry, computer programming, graphic design, etc. So coming to the question of relativity, are works of classical literature still relevant to high school students today when, as statistics show? , they are Reading modern record-breaking texts like Harry Potter and the Twilight Serie? And certainly, people from all over the world (and we can also speak globally in these times) are reading the 175,000 books that publishers publish annually; they certainly wouldn’t be publishing books of any kind if no one was buying them.

A portion of these 175,000 published books are paperback reprints of best-selling books, many of which happen to be classics (at least for now). But instead of drifting off into the virtual world of stats, it might be useful to revisit some classics to see their value first-hand, or at least through the lens of this article. The following classics continue to be relevant in terms of content and more to people today.

moby dickby Herman Melville symbolizes the fear of teenagers trapped in American literature classes everywhere. Why, when none of them like to go whaling, should they spend weeks reading and discussing this particular job that seems so far removed from their contemporary lives? There could be an argument as to why the novel is uniquely important to the founding of American literature, but the novel’s simple relevance can be summed up as a study of good and evil, humanity’s relationship with nature, and humanity. need to successfully interact with fellow humanity. His themes are timeless and no one has managed to convey them as profoundly as Melville did with this particular work.

In 1995, South Carolina-born Susan Smith was convicted of murdering her three-year-old and fourteen-month-old sons by tying them to the backseat of a car and driving to a lake ramp where she released the brake and watched the car she deliberately plunged into the water with her children and sank. Theories about the horrendous murders abounded, but a disgruntled killer and a new man were in her life at the time of the incident. In 431 BC C., the ancient Greek tragic Euripides first produced the drama medea. Medea’s character does the unthinkable: she kills her own children to steal her unfaithful husband’s offspring. Horror, in its unexplained forms, is still a part of human civilization and what better way to take down its motivations than within the harmless pages of a book? And why not start at the beginning of Western literature with a poet who cataloged human motivation like no other.

Teen pregnancy is not a new concept; if you had asked Thomas Hardy at the end of the 19th century, he could tell you all about Tess and how a youthful indiscretion resulted in a pregnancy that indirectly led to her own eternal death. Nor is Hardy’s text an indictment of promiscuity; in fact, he favored Tess over all of her classic heroines. Instead of, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, written at the end of the Victorian era, is an indictment against society, religion, and the people in Tess’s life who shunned her with their morality, a rejection that resulted in her downfall. It is true that Victorians, even late Victorians like Hardy, tended to be verbose and use English vocabulary on a grand scale, but little can rival the power of Hardy’s heroine except, perhaps, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote his own short story. American. fallen woman titled the scarlet letter. Should teens think about the ramifications of unplanned pregnancy in the 21st century? Millions are spent on educating them; there’s no reason why Hardy and Hawthorne can’t help.

But before this examination turns into a discussion of fallen literary women, consider the relativity of a character like Homer’s Achilles who appears in the Iliad. Forget the fact that he is the son of a goddess (Thetis, Greek goddess of the sea); Today’s vampire-loving, fantasy-fueled teens will gobble it up anyway. Achilles is a warrior sent to Troy to fight the ten-year conflict it took him to win back Helen, the Angelina Jolie of the ancient world. Achilles, in spite of him for a fallen comrade, breaks the rules of war and damages his own sense of honor. With the United States currently at war in multiple places, a study of Achilles is not only relevant, but arguably essential, and arguably always will be as long as peace remains an elusive state.

Fortunately, the ancient Greek texts of the Iliad they are adapted into English, but picky English teachers still require students to read Shakespeare in its original form. Its true writers no longer write in iambic pentameter, except by chance and even then it goes unnoticed, but the Bard’s characters are as relative today as they ever were. For example, King Lear poses a pass of ungrateful daughters. Loyalty, betrayal, villainy, love affairs, these are often at the heart of Shakespeare’s plays and never go out of style despite the language barrier. Once students master the language, more often than not, they are fascinated by the connection they have to the story through this language and how the characters remind them of themselves and others.

And maybe that’s all it comes down to: reading others, others who, so far, have stood the test of time. When teens read and discuss characters, they make judgments that could and probably will influence their own judgments as adults. There are many jokes and quotes that warn about the lack of understanding of history as those who do not understand it are doomed to repeat it. Classic literature is relevant because it offers readers the opportunity to deeply empathize, understand in detail, and disconnect from their own universe for a while. Unplugging from technology can bring calm, discipline, and freshness to minds that seem born to multitask. Certainly one can shout the modern relevance of a host of classics from pride and prejudice for moby dick. Until children develop their own taste for literature, they might like to eat their vegetables; they need to do it because it’s good for them.

2011 Moira G Gallaga