Reading Ernest Hemingway, William Dean Howells and Toni Morrison: An Exploration Beyond Literary Artistry

Reading Ernest Hemingway, William Dean Howells and Toni Morrison: An Exploration Beyond Literary Artistry

Ndeye Fatou DIOUF

Doctoral Student, ARCIV Doctoral School, Department of Literatures and Civilizations of English-Speaking Countries, Faculty of Art and Human Sciences, Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal)

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.804075

Received: 23 March 2024; Revised: 02 April 2024; Accepted: 06 April 2024; Published: 06 May 2024

ABSTRACT

Based on Ernest Hemingway, William Dean Howells and Toni Morrison, this work purports to highlight the trivial attempts to come up with common views of literature and urge to focus on the outlooks of reading. So far connotated differently through features which either reflect its worth or deprive it of any interest for some readers, this work aims to focus attention on the different perspectives of literature. Otherwise, this paper consists of a call toward the regard of literature beyond mere artistry or the written form of literary conventions which mostly hide some of its other outlooks.  Exemplified through Hemingway, Howells and Morrison, the paper emphasizes how a bulk of authors mirror different life experiences to expose people to circumstances they may not have the privilege to materialize socially. The latter aims at readers’ social and psychological maturity as well as their moral betterment. In other words, it terms how, besides the artistic worth, the piece of writing pictures realities which embody diverse outlooks of life apart from mere exploration.

Key words : Artistry, life, realities, morality, interdisciplinarity.

INTRODUCTION

The literary work still raises debates as far as its functions are concerned. Despite different aspects developed regarding the importance of reading, there are burning questions related to the use of learning, teaching literature or even reading a piece of work. Defined as fiction, or a representation of life, there are always some of its grounds left undetermined regarding the preponderance of literature according to people’s views. That main preoccupation is found in different perceptions of literature. As for Showalter, Edward “When we go into a bookshop or library, we know basically what to expect in the literature section. But if we try to answer the question ‘What is literature ? no definition seems satisfactory” (Showalter, 2003: 15). From Gharbavi’s (2016) point of view, the same matter surfaces even when it concerns the usual reader who ponders the identity of literature. Each attempt for a definition leaves some of its features unconsidered.

In this work, providing a specific denotation for literature is not the main purpose but showing how, despite the diverse forms of imaginative works resulting from distinct aesthetic principles, the literary work gives insights into various life experiences. Based on Ernest Hemingway’s short stories particularly Indian Camp (1987) and Soldier’s Home (1987), Toni Morrison’s Bluest Eye (1994) and William Dean Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham (1986), this work highlights the representation of universal occurrences in human creative imagination.

Focusing on the sociological and psychological approaches to literature, this article invites us to have another glance or even perception of literature which does not reside in finding a definition reflecting one another’s view of the piece of work. Otherwise, it aims to demonstrate that even though Hemingway, Howells and Morrison pertain to different epochs characterized by distinct preoccupations in the literary field and also, their works are classified among the body of works produced in English and in the United States, they picture realities which not only give way to the readers’ maturity but also widen the social perspectives regarding given everyday experiences.

METHODOLOGY

This research paper based on Ernest Hemingway, William Dean Howells and Toni Morrison’s works, results from the observation of second years students at the Department of Foreign Languages distinct approaches of a class of literature. In the beginning, little attention was paid to literature regarding their career goal, meaning professional translators. From their impression which is shaped by their main idea of literature as extrapolation, their reactions some classes later let us consider that the study of the realistic work Daisy Miller by Henry James positively changes their first apprehension of literature. There, the idea of a piece of work highlighting some perspectives of reading spurges.

For that, one first focuses on theories and research papers on literature aiming at defining the literary work. The latter shows how a unique definition among many others causes the misperception of the varieties of perspectives of literature. Then one comes to literary movements, particularly the American realism, modernism and post-modernist era, to highlight the way the distinct literary principles respond to social realities which in turn lead to a common purpose. At last, the analysis of the works by Hemingway, Howells and Morrison enables us to emphasize how, despite their artistic worth, literature competes with life. It reflects lots of human conditions in some pages. A fact that requires departing from the idea of definition to focus on the various perspectives of reading that the works on the corpus among many others exemplify.

LITERATURE

A Form of Art at the Crossroad of Perceptions:  

Various perceptions are developed regarding the use of a work of art, particularly literature. As a human creation intended for distinct perspectives, the imaginative creation responds to different functions implying its polysemous features. Its polysemantic attribute refers to a classification of art for the sake of its artistry or any given purpose which sometimes departs it from main storytelling or extrapolation. For some like Joseph cited in Ngorima (2018) “Literature can simply be an artistic use of words for the sake of art alone” (Ngorima, 2018: 1). Otherwise, the piece of work stands only for its artistic worth. No other definition prevails if it does not emphasize its literality, meaning an art for art’s sake.

Joseph’s view of literature which denies the piece of writing any eventual connotation other than its artistic function can be linked to the structuralists’ interest in the work of art. For Roland Barthes, Tzvetan Todorov, Gérard Genette, and others only the materials building up the work of art make out literature. In other words, one need not go beyond the regard of the literary aspect of a given work, meaning the principles a specific author resorts to come up with a piece of imaginative work. Thus, they “sought not to interpret literature but to investigate its structures and devices” (Genette, 1983: 8).

Pantic Oakeshott is among those who reduce the lot of literature to mere aestheticism. From his point of view, extrapolation consists of the main purpose of literature, which completely dissociates it from any real fact. Referring to Oakeshott, there is no possible means for social or moral betterment through literature. The artistic worth stands for the sole adventure literature provides. Therefore, he believes :

It would be misleading to regard works of literature as contributions to an inquiry into the nature of the real world and therefore sources of ‘a special kind of moral education’. For him ‘aesthetic experience’ is a unique kind of human experience that absolutely resists reduction to any other than aesthetic terms. The exclusive purpose of creating and enjoying the works of art is the ‘delight’ that they give us (cited in Pantić, 2006: 410).

Amid these considerations of the piece of work notwithstanding any social or moral perspective, some depart from the view of reading as amusement.  As for Akinmulegun (2014), literature responds to a wider scope. It is by far limited to an impregnation of language and an academic branch. It encompasses various competencies and purposes and too many acquisitions to be simply reduced to letters. Akinmulegun considers literature too loaded and fortified and he thinks having a degree in language and literature is perhaps incapable to present and impart the richness and immeasurable ingredients enclosed in literature.

The different acquisitions Akinmulegun unspecified in his conception of the literary work, in Chirere’s (Ngorima, 2011) view consist in the fact that literature is essential for grasping other disciplines. It is the anteroom to inculcate knowledge through critical, social and historical approaches. For Chirere, the preponderance of literature resides in the fact of its particular link to society, it consists of a reference to events related to history, a window to social ways allowing one to discover a given society’s cultural practices and teach prosocial behaviours. For him, at the same time, it is a crucial tool for teaching critical thinking and logic.

Besides, Chirere’s approach to the purposes of the piece of work finds its relevance in Hancock’s view of literature. He frames the piece of writing in a period, definite culture, language and people to highlight the reference to historical facts, society and cultural practices Hancock (2006) alludes to.

However, the assets of a piece of writing are carried further than the social, cultural and historical knowledge it instils, it dives people into the real-life perspectives. Literature introduces and initiates readers to distinct realities which are not without impacts on the latter’s view and approach of people and experiences. It not only inculcates knowledge but also positively updates the regard and approach one has of the world. That view of art corroborates Ponam’s (2020) apprehension of art. For him :

It influences us and makes us understand the ways of life. Narratives, in particular, inspire empathy and lend a whole new perspective to us and that of others too. This also works with the morals induced within us – either directly or by implied means. When one reads literature, one gains insight, knowledge and wisdom, refining our emotions in the process too. Literature is life manifested in myriad forms. (Ponam, 2020:30)

In that same line of ideas, Salman Rushdie sums up Ponam’s idea of the piece of work. Rushdie considers that literature terms the different faces of human life. For him, the delightful world it introduces is the crossroad of the different aspects of life dosed with fiction. “Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart” (Ponam, 2020:30).

These different approaches regarding the perspectives of literature simply confirm the quasi-impossibility of coming up with a definition which encompasses the assets of literature, making it necessary to focus on its essence. Otherwise, to paraphrase Ponam (2020) that would amount to capturing the vast oceans into a small bowl. However, such restrictions make it necessary to skip an attempt to define literature or repeat its assets mentioned here and then and show its life perspectives. Focusing particularly on Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham (1986), Hemingway’s Indian Camp (1987) and Soldiers Home (1987) and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1987), this article aims to emphasize how literature, for example the American one, through distinct movements, reflects universal occurrences purporting not only to provide delight but also to sensitize for the moral betterment of human beings.

THE AMERICAN REALISM, MODERNISM AND POST-MODERNISM

A Cocktail of Artistic Principles:

The approach to the different assets of literature in this work, as specified does not consist in coming to term what the literary work is but how useful it is to understand humans’ struggles, experiences etc. Based on three authors belonging to distinct movements and advocating different aesthetic principles, one aims to emphasize how the piece of art competes with life in misery, joy, progress, social battles and so on; illustrating Flaubert’s dictum “Read in order to live” (Pantić, 2006: 401).

The particular focus on William Dean Howells, Ernest Hemingway and Toni Morrison requires revisiting the principles of the American realist, modernist and post-modernist movements. The latter representing three different epochs characteristic of the American literary field, reveal the way art conforms to human social realities for its given literary concern. As Collins notes: “All literature, whether it be poems, essays, novels, or short stories, helps us address human nature and conditions which affect all people” (Cited in Ngorima, 2018:13).

As some movements which appeared in different social contexts, each one has specific literary features. Emerged as a response to American romanticism, realism stands for the literary movement of the late nineteenth century which emphasized verisimilitude or art’s resemblance to reality. The advocators of truth mark a turn in the literary field in the United States. Breaking with the tradition of the romanticists who focused on imagination, intuition and idealization, the realist writers in the example of Henry James, Mark Twain and William Dean Howells consider that the worth of any piece of work, particularly novels resides in its faithful picture of social realities. A feature that the different literary theories of the period emphasized in different terms.

William Dean Howells, on his side, defines the principles of the realist movement insisting on the real as the gem of a piece of art. Equating realism to “nothing more, nothing less than the truthful treatment of materials” (Howells, 2006:36), he points up truth as the embodiment of artistry, literary strength, importance, meaningfulness and social usefulness of the novel. On his side, defining reality as “the supreme virtue of a novel” (James, 1984:53), James links the success and merit of any piece of work to truth. Thus, the literature of late nineteenth-century America stands for the representation of people and the social realities of the period as emphasized by Sandra Megbulem :

One of the vital characteristics of realism in literature is its emphasis on portraying life as it is. Realist writers sought to capture the mundane and ordinary aspects of daily existence and the complexities of human psychology and social dynamics. The settings and characters depicted in realist works are often drawn from everyday life, making them relatable and recognizable to readers (Megbulem, 2023: i)

Besides the principles of realism, the American modernist movement appeared in the early twentieth century with its sets of features departing it from the earlier literary movements to means realism, the naturalist period and the preceding literary trends. In literature “modernism is an aesthetic movement that got popularity from around 1910 to 1930” (Sheeba, 2017:182). Corroborating the social atmosphere of the early twentieth century, the literary movement of the period reflects innovation and pessimism in the authors’ main focus on themes of isolation, disillusionment and losses.

The atmosphere of the period required newness in the artistic field as Ezra Pound’s fundamental imperative illustrates it: “Make it new” (Lathbury, 2006: 5). Otherwise “If World War I deprived humanity of its faith and made daily living meaningless and empty, then style—the way in which one lived—becomes all-important” (Lathbury, 2006: 5). Modernist writings inhale the sequels of the Great Depression and The World wars articulated in Hemingway’s representation of the disillusionment of the Lost Generation. They portray chaos and losses. Black literature also celebrating the culture and identity of the Negro made its appearance with The Harlem Renaissance. The air of newness affects the literary field through authors’ craving for innovation in form, style of writing and particularly language reflecting the pessimistic atmosphere, people’s shock and miserable life, making it its main facet as stressed by Pericles: “More than a century after its beginnings, modernism still has the power to shock, alienate or challenge readers. Modernist art and literature remain thought of as complex and difficult” (Pericles, 2014: xvii).

In that wave of literary trends mostly influenced by the social features of a given epoch, post-modernism made its appearance after the Second World War, with different literary perspectives. Postmodern literature is “a form of literature which is marked both stylistically and ideologically, by a reliance on such literary conventions as fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators, often unrealistic and downright impossible plots, games, parody, paranoia, dark humour, and authorial self-reference” (Sheeba, 2017: 181).

Under the influence of the World War and Cold War and the mentality of invention due to technological advances, postmodernism is mostly characterized by authors’ neglect of literary conventions and the adoption of their styles. The latter facets make writings dynamic with the growth of all forms of literature, and the development of various themes such as identity due to the emergence of black and particularly Black skinned women literature.

Referring to these different movements, one considers literature, particularly the American one to be the representation of distinct ideologies and styles. Each literary trend is faithful to the social and historical context in which it emerges. However, that distinctiveness reinforces its social use. Otherwise, it is through that cocktail of principles one defines the very impact of reading on people’s social and self-development or as Collins defines the purpose of literature “we need literature in order to connect with our own humanity” (Ngorima, 2018:13).

Focusing particularly on Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham, Hemingway’s Indian Camp and Soldier’s Home as well as Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, one emphasizes how the literary work helps explore humanities common lot ranging from experiences to lessons which, beyond exploration initiate to the different occurrences of life, their impacts and at the same time aim to sensitize and change for the better.

HOWELLS, HEMINGWAY AND MORRISON

The Specimen of the Distinct Styles of literary works and their Common Concerns on the Lot of Humanity

In their different works, William Dean Howells, Ernest Hemingway, as well as Toni Morrison, have people go through various life experiences which not only depart them from the regard of literature as mere evasion but also impose on readers another conception of that piece of art. Using distinct techniques and aesthetic principles which mostly refer to the literary periods they belong to, their works term human lives in different ways. In other words, their writings bring into contact with life and reduce their literary conventions to mere ideologies leading to common concerns.

In Howells, Hemingway and Morrisson, one explores themes bringing light to daily concerns notwithstanding the distinct eras and social preoccupations. Focusing firstly on Ernest Hemingway’s Indian Camp (1987), one views literature as an initiation to life. The literary work glanced from Hemingway’s perspective in Indian Camp, is a voyage through the facets of life. The short journey of Nick Adams in the Indian Camp stands firstly for an introduction to otherness. In crossing the river with his father, Hemingway foreshadows Nick Adams’ detachment from his natural environment, from the natural, the known to the strange, newness etc…Suppose the river leads him from the familiar to a new circle, once in the camps, the nine years old boy materializes that other first through his father’s portrayal of the Shanties’ lifestyle “Ahead were the lights of the shanties where the Indian bark-peelers lived” (Hemingway1, 1987: 69), then he insists on their sense of community “All the old women in the camp had been helping her. The men had moved off up the road to sit in the dark and smoke out of range of the noise she made” (Hemingway1, 1987: 69).

Thus, the character in Nick stands for the reader whom the writer takes to another environment to introduce its social realities, starting from the existence of the other who is nobody but an individual evolving in a separate social circle and having another reality. However, Nick’s trip is not limited to the discovery of another lifestyle, he witnesses different life experiences, that in the normal course of things, could take a long time for individuals to witness let alone a boy of nine.

Personified through Nick, the figure of innocence, Indian Camp initiates the reader to life experiences from birth to death. While attending the woman’s labour, his father’s urge to listen and his detailed explanation stand for the writer’s invitation of readers’ attention to the fictionalized aspect of the typical realities of societies :

This lady is going to have a baby, Nick,” he said.

“I know,” said Nick.

“You don’t know,” said his father. “Listen to me. What she is going through is called being in labor. The baby wants to be born and she wants it to be born. All her muscles are trying to get the baby born. That is what is happening when she screams.”

“You see, Nick, babies are supposed to be born head first but sometimes they’re not. When they’re not they make a lot of trouble for everybody. Maybe I’ll have to operate on this lady. We’ll know in a little while ” (Hemingway1, 1987: 70)

In Indian Camp, Hemingway revisits the individual’s life cycle from birth to suffering women go through labour to death. While representing the husband who could not bear the scene and commits suicide, Hemingway pictures the relativity of life situations and how they define people’s humanity. Characterized by strength and courage as personified by Nick Adams’ father, adulated for having put an end to the lady’s suffering, the Indian man, on the other side, epitomizes how human beings’ strength and weaknesses depend on definite situations. Mostly qualified weak, women bear and assist in labour, at the moment when the men “ had moved off up the road to sit in the dark and smoke out of range of the noise she made” (Hemingway1, 1987: 69). In such situation, Indian Camp also reflects life polarity, otherwise, how it consists of joy and sadness, at the same moment, the doctor and other people in the same room were celebrating the newborn, the husband put an end to his life.

That same reflection of the double aspects of life is portrayed in William Dean Howells’ novel. In The Rise of Silas Lapham, he represents the realities of life as experienced in the image of a house in which mitigated feelings coexist.

The house of mourning is decorously darkened to the world, but within itself, it is also the house of laughing. Bursts of gaiety, as heartfelt as its grief, relieve the gloom, and the stricken survivors have their jests together, in which the thought of the dead is tenderly involved, and a fond sense, not crazier than many others, of sympathy and enjoyment beyond the silence, justifies the sunnier mood before sorrow rushes back, deploring and despairing, and making it all up again with the conventional fitness of things (Howells, 1986: 306-307).

Thus, from the story of Nick where literature dives people into real-life perspectives, supported by Howells, the main idea of reading for arts’ sake can be replaced by the view of fiction as the verbalization of human realities dosed with literary devices. Suppose Indian Camp (1987) explores life from birth to death, Soldier’s Home (1987) focuses on human waste due to wars. Krebs personifies the devastation caused by war. Harold Krebs stands for the sequels of War on Humanity. Harold’s views and lifestyle embody the social and psychological sequels of war.

Distinct from young men who grow out of war experience, Harold Krebs’ worldview is shaped by the time of the war. He links his social perceptions to the reality of the army, even the fact of having a girlfriend: “You did not need a girl unless you thought about them. He learned that in the army ” (Hemingway2, 1987: 99). In the same way, nothing is of interest to him if it is not linked to war. His life in the army shapes his tastes and appreciation as his impression of the book about war illustrates it: “He sat there on the porch reading a book on the war. It was a history and he was reading about all the engagements he had been in. It was the most interesting reading he had ever done” (Hemingway2, 1987: 99).

However, such are not the main illustrations of the impact of war on people, the sense of reward animates people destituting them of their perception of normalcy. While portraying the social and psychological damage of war, Hemingway highlights how people tend to expect unending rewards from others. That recognition ends up being their main social quest. On Krebs’ side, the modernist writer represents how society’s failure to meet his expectations denatures him.  His desire to be the centre of interest for townspeople urges him to tell lies, which he, in the end, recognized as being against his principles: “Later he felt the need to talk but no one wanted to hear about it. His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities. Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie” (Hemingway2, 1987:99).

Besides Hemingway, Howells highlights the sequels of war, despite his conception of it as an act of patriotism conveyed through Mrs Lapham’s pieces of advice to her husband: “Silas, I guess you’ve got a country that’s worth fighting for. Any rate, you better go out and give it a chance” (Howells, 1986: 16).  The experimenter of the Gilded Age and Hemingway, a member of the Lost Generation reflect the subsequence of war on human beings. Suppose, the Dean of the American Letters represents its outcomes in a glided America and Hemingway in a gloomy atmosphere, both convey the devastations. In Howells, Lapham’s unending claim of his status as Colonel reflects how people expect an unending social acknowledgement from the society they defend. Lapham goes on to combine that grade with his name.

At the same time, Silas’ regard toward Dewey he considers he owes recognition for life is representative of Howells’ picture of the aftereffects of war, particularly the human losses witnessed. For him, the girl’s father died on his turn. That sense of guilt makes his duty toward Dewey his lifelong burden. The idea that he owes life to his warmate, makes him bear the scars of the expenses of hiding from his wife when he hires Dewey in his company as well as when he assures her and her mother’s expenditure.

In addition, the focus on Toni Morrison adds other touches to reflect how beyond its literality, the piece of work raises people’s awareness of lots of situations in which people do not most of the time bestow the attention they are worth in reality. It makes debatable the realities that societies mute. Morrison, on her side, pictures different conditions people face in her society, the American one divided by colour line. In The Bluest Eye (1994), focusing particularly on Pecola, a Black female character’s lot, she paints how the conditions as Black and female in America make women bear social plagues which devoid them of the sense of their selves. In other words, she portrays and sensitizes regarding how they are destitute of their self-esteem and self-worth as long as they consider the prototype of women the dominant society celebrates.

As a post-modernist writer, Morrison’s use of the influence of popular culture is significant in her attempt to point out the other forms of racism the society roots in women. Evolving at a period where advances in terms of technology are noticeable, she highlights their reverse side. Otherwise, the way the dominant culture uses technological means to oppress the Black community, particularly women, making use of advertisements, movies and so on.  As the figure of the matriarch, the young Pecola stands for the generation of black characters who, under the influence of white dominant society, lose their social landmark to blindly seek acceptance in meeting the standards of beauty leading to destruction.  There, she calls toward the regard of how, in the Black community’s ending restitution of their identity, deprived through slavery and the issue of race, their community is still threatened by social constructs conveyed through technological means aiming to reduce them to nothingness taking women, the key figures as the scapegoat.

Thus Morrison, on her side, represents how White supremacy still follows its course in the United States. Despite the different attempts to set themselves free from questions of race considered waned affairs through history, Morrison calls toward the regard of how societies, in general, conform to standards. The latter, through various forms, causes psychological and social damage to the Black community, resulting in destruction at the same time racism follows in course in distinct shapes.

Focusing on the deduction in Howells, Hemingway and Toni Morrison one aims to emphasize the way literary works lead to confront various social realities which not only mirror the atmosphere in space and time in which a given work reflects but also help interpret the immediate environment notwithstanding the reader’s social background. Various lessons are deduced from these literary works, where one explores anthropology, sociology, the medical field, and psychology to at the end bounce into morality for change or futuristic perspectives.

RESULTS

The literary works on the corpus as well as the additional documents reflect diverse perspectives of reading which are enriching enough for people to skip the stage of defining literature to take advantage of its assets. The latter, from one author to another, is adulated for its various outlooks on society. For Akinmulegun (2014), literature is a means to restore morality at a period when values are waning starting from the academic circle to the social one. He regards literature as the instrument for change. Its role which consists of bringing about a better mind, can amend such decadence in schools and society.

Others like Kurmanbay (2020), based on the impact of reading on high schoolers, conclude how essential literature is, especially in building up their self. It imparts skills related to the interpretative approach to their surroundings and how they adapt their literary competencies to any circumstances, enabling them to draw various outlooks no matter the situation. In his view :

The study of literature can have crucial importance in the education of the independent personality (…) With the help of reading various literary texts, students in secondary education of modern schools can receive skills of critical analysis through connecting the meaning of these texts with their lives and the world. Besides, teaching literature in secondary education can provide the ability to imagine the inner and outer worlds of any substance, and to solve and investigate important, present, and future problems individually (Kurmanbay, 2020:1).

Thus, parting from the validation of such representation of the touches of literature either in the education or social environment, one highlights the results focusing first on the impact of literature on the object of observation meaning the trainee in professional translation to the broader perspectives the works of Hemingway, William Dean Howells as well as Toni Morrison give insight to.

An observation during a twenty-hour English literature class for a hybrid group of second-year students in Foreign Languages, reveals the slants the students have of the literary piece. From a regard as a waste of time, dissociating it to their professional ambitions, they end up approaching it for linguistic and social competencies. The historical, social as well as spatial features James recourses, when explored related to the concept the atmosphere of the periods socially connotes in the example of the Gilded Age, and the Gospel of wealth, to list some, they come up to the cruciality of literature, in its interdisciplinary approach as a means that helps grasp the meaning of terms or expressions related to a given social, historical and geographical framework. Otherwise, it not only improves their competencies in the new words they learn but how it enables them to insert them in a context to translate them without betraying the meanings given circumstances impart them.

However, beyond the professional field, studying Daisy Miller urges them to inquire or even interpret the extent literary works reflect social realities as well as how they help explore new social realities at the same time find interest in ordinary situations which hitherto were paid little attention. Such impression these students have after being introduced to one of Henry James’late nineteenth century transatlantic fiction influences this work on three different authors leading to the conclusion that despite the distinct periods characterizing art as well as various artistic penchant of authors, literature awakens one’s critical perspectives at the same time it provides competencies aiming at the individual and social betterment.

Hemingway explores various life circumstances which guide one’s apprehension of society and the conditions people go through in life which constitute the bitter and sweet facets. At the same time, Hemingway and Howells urge to regard the psychological, social and moral sequels of war. So far measured by human loss and the physical scars, Hemingway’s experience of the World War and Howells’ witness of the Civil War draw attention to the ending devastation war causes, which in turn constitutes a lesson for the cultivation of peace. Morrison, on her side, an advocator of Black identity particularly the female character makes The Bluest Eye a wake-up call regarding how the post-modern era with its features like technology embodies a plague particularly related to how people have access to information and advertisement. This situation is illustrated through the way Black young girls are early in their lives destitute of self-esteem and worth. A lot that most coloured people experience through different ways urging them to abnegate their identity. Thus they develop enough lessons sensitizing and inculcating enough values to be other forms of education.

CONCLUSION

Indian Camp and Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway, The Rise of Silas Lapham and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison are models to impart how literature competes with people’s lives. They reflect the mimetic function consisting of representing people’s lives. Nevertheless, such a picture communicates much more than the author intends sometimes. In the portrayal, writers refer to situations witnessed in a specific place, a given period with their surrounding conditions, which in the readers’ literary pilgrimage, plunge them into realities distinct from the work’s social and historical contexts and provide them with new perspectives different from the writer’s and which constitute valid outlooks.

The distinct pieces of work are illustrative of that asset of literature. The literary work offers the reader a whole life to explore. Its multidisciplinary perspectives term universal occurrences aiming to provide a broader understanding of life, to update regarding the social facts and their dynamics and sensitize notwithstanding the context in time and space of the piece of work.

Besides covering life, reading is particularly crucial in the educational field. It enables a better knowledge of language through the new words one comes across. Language efficiency at the same time inculcates social competencies. The examples of the professional translators’ different approaches to the concepts of the Gilded Age and Nouveaux Riches are perfect illustrations. Not only Daisy Miller by Henry James provides them with various social experiences of the late nineteenth century in Europe and America but also unearthes the context in time and space where these concepts originate, enabling them to translate them without neglecting those denotations. Thus among the outlooks of that literary work, they acquire broader knowledge of their field, especially the way reading contributes to their professional betterment.

The impact of those social perspectives James (1937) calls the windows of the house of fiction constitute the different gate literature offers to readers. Nonetheless, a misperception of the piece of art blurs much of the competencies it instils, devoiding people of the social and moral perception the verbal form of life experiences inculcates when responding to social challenges.

Notes

• References to Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway will appear as follows (Hemingway1, date: page number).
• References to Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway will appear in the text as follows (Hemingway2, date: page number).

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