Is literature the expression of the human condition

Is Literature the Expression of the Human Condition

Oh yes, is literature the expression of the human condition or is it not? Yes, literature is and for only one reason, Normans Conquest 1066. But also literature is recorders of history, recordings of time. Literature also a sequence of words, it can consist of all meanings, expressing the human condition, emotions, recorders, it defines life. The human condition is experiences of being human in a social, cultural, and personal context, it's an aspect of positives and negatives of being human. So forth, literature is shown in Death of a Salesman, where Willy is stuck in his own past and everyone but him knows that. But like all humans, we all have dreams, hopes, and plans. "LINDA: He’ll find his way.

WILLY: Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] I’ll put my money on Biff." (13)(Act 1) Willy hoping that one day for Biff to be a famous salesman, like one of the best salesman out there, at the top with Thomas Edison, or B.F. or Goodrich. But both Linda and Willy knew that Biff would never be a major success in business, but even though they knew it, they still hoped and believed in him. The American dream was to be the number one, at the top better than everyone else and that's what Willy always wanted, he wanted to be the best, especially the best salesman. He was living in the past and ruining all hopes of ever becoming the best. He just couldn’t grasp on the fact that the future was coming sooner then he thought, and wasn’t ready for it. CHARLEY: "Nobody dast blame this man. You don’t understand: Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there’s no rock bottom to the life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple spots on your hat and your finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream boy, it comes with the territory." (111)(Act 2) Charley insisting that Willy a salesman and no matter he always will be, his dream will never die, and even when your salesman and it's not going the best it possibly can or you're not the best in the world there's no rock bottom. Also as you can see in Great Gatsby ,Literature is expressing that humans can be split by wealth. The poor do their own thing, have their own parties and then the more wealthy class stay with their group and have their own events. But also in this book it prove one man's love for a women and how long and how far people are willing to go to prove their love. Well for Gatsby he just never gave up on the girl of his dreams, he followed her, set up every moment perfectly, planned everything. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."(1)
In life, not everyone has the opportunities as others would get, so it's like that saying "Don't judge a book by its cover." Because if you are criticizing people just off looks, or what you think they might be or what they might have done, you might never know, and maybe you would be wrong. You never know what some people have been through, until that day you learn how to go up to them and stop judging and talk to them and find out who they really are. In humans we have the intensity to always judge someone, will it be looks, wealth, personality, how they talk, or what they do. No matter where you go it's in the human condition that someone or everyone will judge you, either it will be said to your face or in their mind. It’s human nature for judging, to also debate weather how we will get treated or act. "Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock....his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him." (182)
Gatsby gets so close to the girl he's in love with, so close but yet so far. Emotions is one of the key part to the human condition, love can play a big role in life, it can take control over your mind, soul, heart, everything, it can be the best feeling in the world or it can be the worst. It can feel like heaven but hurt like hell. But if love didn’t hurt or give the pain it gives then there would be no reasons to come back to it. Or to keep falling in and out of love. In The Adventures of Huckfinn, Huck lies throughout the book, but in some cases it's for the best, to either save himself or someone he cares about. But it's like Truth vs. Lies vs. Life and death, for example “Honest, I’ll tell you everything just as it happened, your majesty. The man that had a-holt of me was very good to me, and kept saying he had a boy about as big as me that died last year, and he was sorry to see a boy in such a dangerous fix; and when they was all took by surprise by finding the gold, and made a rush for the coffin, he lets go of me and whispers, ’Heel it now, or they’ll hang ye, sure!’ and I lit out. It didn’t seem no good for ME to stay—I couldn’t do nothing, and I didn’t want to be hung if I could get away. So I never stopped running till I found the canoe; and when I got here I told Jim to hurry, or they’d catch me and hang me yet, and said I was afeard you and the duke wasn’t alive now, and I was awful sorry, and so was Jim, and was awful glad when we see you coming; you may ask Jim if I didn’t.”(155) Huck is lying to save himself, but also he got lucky that the man that was holding him, his son died that year and was around his age and height, but it reminded him of his son. The man felt sorry for Huck, that he was in such a dangerous fix, so when the man got a chance to let Huck run, he did. The human condition, is like when we get a chance to lie we usually take it, just as long as we get what we want, just put words together and make it into sentences that people want to hear, but it's all bull shit. An nice over being a asshole, out in the world there are mainly assholes, but who can really blame them since if your too nice you get taken for granted. In Winesburg Ohio, literature is expressed through many of ways, in all of the short stories. In "Hands" a guy uses his hands to talk but he got kick out of his home town for doing that, for the town people thought he wasn’t the same as them, and they didn’t like people who where different, they wanted everything the same everyone the same. "The coming of industrialization, attended by all the roar and rattle of affairs, the shrill cries of millions of voices that have come among us from overseas, the going and coming of trains, the growth of cities, the building of the interurban car lines that weave in and out of towns and past farmhouses, and now in these later days the coming of the automobiles has worked a tremendous change in lives and in the habits of thought of our people of Mid- America."(56)
Urbanization and travel have changed America, as the humanity started to change so did movement, traveling, and more to advance into the future. Making life easier, but in Winesburg Ohio, towns were full of one type of people because if you were different they would either run you out of the town or end up killing you, having someone different then everyone else just wasn’t common for them. Going on, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as a slave suffering was a daily thing, and white folks were stupid for insistence… "I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion." (2.9) The white folks that seen the slave singing songs, and dancing thought that they were happy, but never really understand that they were hoping for slavery to stop, to be free. Every man and every women should have equal rights no matter what color black, white, yellow, blue..ect. All humans are equal that how God made us, just because some are better in other things than others, doesn’t make them less human or equal, slavery could work either way. So why put yourself in a position that you wouldn’t want to be in, in the first place. The Things They Carried, as literature is the expression of the human condition, it can be a not so pretty site at time. Life's already like a war, it's like the battlefield of life, but then to add to it, we got the most horrible thing know to mankind "war." "When I'm out there at night, I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and my fingernails, everything, it's like I'm full of electricity and I'm glowing in the dark--I'm on fire almost--I'm burning away to nothing--but it doesn't matter because I know exactly where I am."(111) War can change all aspects of a man, it’s one of the most burial things in this world and watching with your only two pairs of eyes. We all have our own limits, till we finally break, and watching as your comrades or one of your best friends get shot, either critically injured, or to point they die. Will always change someone, change their life forever, war is not something to joke about as are men fight for our safety and for us, we sit back at home living our life, like nothing going on. "I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story."(246) In this quote it shows what people really would do to save someone life, because one life can make a big differences. But Literature is the expression of the human condition, for life is something worth wild, as words have all different kinds of meaning they all can be inter twined with each other, which can tell stories and which makes history as we know it. Literature is just a recording or maybe even more great then we can image. Within time literature has been evolving, expressing the human condition in all different ways. Life wouldn’t be what it is today without literature, just think…the way we express ourselves is through words, actions, cultures, the personal context, and what we have dealt with throughout our daily lives. As the connections with Hamlet and the expression of literature with the human condition, we come to contexts that Hamlet gives you a varies of tastes of being human and the works of literature. For Young Hamlet, he lost his father and his mother is marrying the brother of the falling King Hamlet. The expressing pain for Hamlet is great for the ghost of Hamlets father seems to be haunting around the castle for revenge of his death. But for Hamlet to revenge his father he finds out the story between his father death, but also finds out the real friends, who he can trust and the fakes. With his actions but also his intelligence he slowly destroyed those who deserved it but also those who only did only what they were told to do. "HAMLET Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive. , look to 't. LORD POLONIUS [Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him again. What do you read, my lord? HAMLET Words, words, words."(II,II,184-192) It seems this world is full of fools, stupid people. Hamlet doesn’t even need to try and he makes Polonius look dumb without even him getting a hint of what's happening, just thinking Hamlet is crazy. Literature ties into everywhere, only words have been said but Polonius is so lost in what a intelligent mind says that his puny little brain cannot comprehend. Hamlet telling Polonius to set his daughter free and let her be blessed then to be following in his footsteps that’s already captive in a devilish mind of failure and despair. In furthermore, in such a world its crazy how some take their own family or even other people down, to their level of unsuccessfulness, the failure of their own lives, but to have others following your footsteps only to make them be on the level you are is a overwhelming temptation. Not that you want to be in the same position as them, but like in this case, for Polonius's daughter she doesn’t want to disrespect his father or to disobey him so she does what he says even if it's not right or what she wants. But he doesn’t care, like to drag your family down to that level is absolutely insane, some people show just not be born or aloud to reproduce, buts it's all parts and bits and pieces of the human condition, theirs either a positive outcome or a negative. In a wise mind comes great responsibilities, but within all minds come control of your own thoughts and abilities for the good and bad. Like in Macbeth you get the feel of how people act when they are so close into reach of power, that they would do almost anything to get it or keep it. Macbeth is contemplating weather or not to kill the king, for what the witches told him he would become thane of Cawdor, and the witches were right. But after he told his wife what happened and the witches also hinted that he was going to one day be king and after telling his wife, just like everyone in the world, she thought of power and money that came with it. Didn’t care one bite how it happened, and she was intimating her own husband into murdering the king. "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition; but without The illness should attend it" -Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene v If you are even slightly human, you would feel bad and guilty for killings of innocent people. There's always good inside everyone, some deeper than others, see the fact is Lady Macbeth at one point feel the pain and guilt eating her alive for making her husband kill all the people he did, and the innocent little children that should have never been touched. She tries to keep washing her hands of all the dirty memories she have going through her head, but it's something that once you got in you can only dig yourself deeper and deeper and its brutal but marvelous way how the mind works but also the literature behind it. You know it’s the wrong thing to do, but when someone so hypnotized by the power they can receive. They get so far ahead of themselves to be greedy. Expressing the human condition comes in all different ways, shapes, forms, and in everyone there's bites and pieces of literature in us explaining us in how ever we want to be viewed as. The actions we take determines who we attract, the personality is who we keep there, just like in Jenny Craig even though it's more of an aspect of an outer view of someone. More you work out and get your body to fit more "sexy" look people like you more, before getting to know you, just because its looks first that takes you to that point to talking to them. And if you go on a "diet" and run/lift weights, it still takes that dedication to keep yourself going and not quit, and as you watch and see others be able to do it, you feel as that is inspiration so you can do it too. It seemed to be that you were never really anything, until you had that perfect body. And it was a factor of always working hard to get it, so you could be that something to someone, or just for others to come up and talk to you. In another note, wars are the most cold hearted, unsympathetic, aggressive thing known to this cruel world. In Slaughterhouse-five we see how critical the battlefield is, not only for those fighting, but also for those who are living in their homes, and we see just how destructive it really is. "Do you know what I say to people when I hear they're writing anti-war books? . . . I say, 'Why don't you write an anti-glacier book instead?'" (1.2.9-11) While in Slaughterhouse-five Billy Pilgrim doesn’t really have any control over his life, he's running around trying to survive. But the point of this is, how do you change something that will never change, anti-war it's like world peace it's never gonna happen. You can always create peace with certain people or countries but not with everyone because never do anyone ever get along with each other. In addition, in 1984 expresses the human condition, by the rebels attack on the government, as we know that the government just tries anyway possible to hold its power. By this it shows that not only by actions but the intelligence you could easily get mind trapped with the government. But also it’s a perfect example that as long as human live, there's always going to be a person that does not agree and will be the rebel. And what dangers they were getting into throughout their lives social and physical of totalitarianism and political authority. "We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull." - (Part 3, Chapter 3, pg. 268)

Everything is based off a mind game, they get in your head you lose. As long as there's a government, you never are truly free. You are always being watched no matter where you are, what you're doing, it will always be recognize "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" -(Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 3) No matter what the government is watching, it's like having a stalker. Just this is much worse. This expresses the human condition because if you're always being watched and you can't fully be free, then what's the point in not rebelling against the government or in general for your rights. In Of Mice and Men George is the closest thing to family for Lennie, and Lennie like big toddler, it's like he's so innocence just trapped in a bigger and older body. "George looked sharply at him. "What'd you take outa that pocket?" "Ain't a thing in my pocket," Lennie said cleverly. "I know there ain't. You got it in your hand…"(1.25-27) In a world where its seems to be no one innocence, they always can look and act like it when their around people but it's just like well "If a tree falls in the forest and no one around to hear it, does it still make a sound?" well of course it does why wouldn’t it. It seems to be as everyone puts on fake faces and smiles at you just to get to know your business, but in Lennie case he's literally a little kid at heart, stuck in a grown man's body. Trying to get by with his buddy George which he looks out for, and as they strive towards the American dreams which seems so highly impossible. Romeo and Juliet as destiny decides their fate together through unfulfilling love which in love you always going to have your violence. Love is a crazy feeling, with all the effects and effort you put in, and when you truly love someone how far your willing to go for that one person. It's like no mountain to high… there's just no limits to anything just as long as your with them, nothing else matters. ROMEO- Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears: What is it else? a madness most discreet, A choking gall and a preserving sweet."(1.1.7) Romeo describing his meaning of love, how he feels, love is a power feeling, for each person it may feel different. Love to him is a just like a small sighs, unwanted, memory, condition, to get rid of, but a burning infernal, being washed by ones tears, Romeo just thinks badly of love just cuz he feels pain, hurting, and just is done feeling what he is feeling. Literature expressing the human condition is an unbelievable truth, without literature where would we be, it explains everything, it turns nothing into something, puts a meaning behind it. Life without Literature would be impossible, there's to much proof leading up to it. Turn the negatives into positives, mind state is everything when it comes down. As Literature keeps raising so will human kind.