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What Does Great Literature Mean To You Essay

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What Does Great Literature Mean To You Essay
What defines great literature? To me, great literature is a book that is well written, that has a fluid plot that keeps the book moving forward, and a clear moral that the story is trying to tell. Great literature greatly differs from romance novels or blood and gore action thrillers. The job of the thriller or romance novel, is to keep the reader entertained through the entire book and for them to buy the next one, and the books are filled with simple characters and simple plots. With great literature, the reader is put through an experience with complex characters, and an interesting plot that allows for in depth analysis and multiple reads. However, for one person, the action thrillers and romance novels could be their definition of great …show more content…
The three books that have stood out to me, are Breaking Through, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Romeo and Juliet. I believe that each one of these books are pieces of great literature. For Breaking Through, it is an extremely well written book with an excellent moral. The moral that no matter what situation you are in and no matter what life throws at you, if you work hard you will succeed really sticks to me. Second, for To Kill a Mockingbird , it is also extremely well written and provides complex characters and an in depth plotline. Harper Lee beautifully illustrates the town of Maycomb and its inhabitants. Furthermore, She eloquently describes each character's personality through their actions and words with Atticus Finch being a righteous man defending an African American fairly even though it had harmful reprocussions just because it was the right thing to do. Scout Finch seeing the world through rose colored glasses which influences how Lee writes the story is brilliant. Lastly, Romeo and Juliet contains beautifully eloquent language and great use of foreshadowing and metaphors. Shakespeare uses bird metaphors throughout the play to further his story telling and many other types of powerful figurative language. Romeo and Juliet definitely deserves to be considered great literature along with Breaking Through and To Kill a Mockingbird. In short, our class has
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