Learning Human Nature From Novels - Essay Example

Learning Human Nature From Novels For so many years now, many people still have questions on the effect of reading novels to attitudes, beliefs and even to life as a whole. It cannot be answered by a simple phrase saying that novels make lives beautiful. This paper will then focus on the learning brought about by novels and in short will dispute scientific psychology’s power to affect people. In the year 2002, a group of students from the International Congress IGEL University of Pecs conducted a study entitled “Causal Relationships between Reading Socialication, Socioeconomic Variables, and Strategies for Reading Novels.” The goal of the sturdy or research is to determine through statistical method the relationships in reading socialization and its significant effects to the reader based on several factors such as reading frequency and preferences, reading socialization, reading strategies, social data and cultural milieu. The study was conducted from people all over Germany who were at least 16 years old. 1025 people were interviewed. The aim of the statistical investigation of the collected data was twofold: Firstly to verify reading strategies. With the concept of "reading strategy", all the operations and actions that readers apply when they read a literary text are implied. Such reading strategies can occur before, during and after reading. They include both the behavior to the text in its material form (e.g. browsing through a book, throwing it in the trash) as well as emotional reactions and cognitive operations (e.g. identifying oneself with the protagonist, furthering the story in one’s own daydreams) as well as social interaction and communication about the text (e.g. talking about the book with the book dealer or with friends). (Burbaum et al. 2002) The result concluded that education has a big impact to reading socialization and the so-called highbrow literature which is also known as the sophisticated literature is associated with people having good education. However, there is no connection between gender and the level of sophistication in literature. There are four points that should be remembered in this study. The first one is a person with more distinctive reading socialization is more likely to read in the style of coping. The second idea is women are more likely to read in the style of coping by reading. Another significant point on reading novels is that a person who reads in the style of coping is more likely to read highbrow or sophisticated literature and has a higher probability of doing reflective reading. The last to be considered of this study is the fact that the person who reads highbrow literature is more possible to apply reflective reading strategies. (Burbaum et. al., 2002). Through the mentioned study, there is already a glimpse to the fact that people are not reading novels for nothing. People too are not indifferent to the known effects of the novels to attitudes and perspectives of life. To prove this idea, another study in 2006 conducted by Mar, R.A., Oatley, K., Hirsh, J., dela Paz, J. & Peterson, J.B. with title “Reading novels linked with increased empathy,” showed that those people who read a lot of novels of fiction are more probable to have empathy than those who read nonfiction. This is for the reason that fiction readers are subject to understanding human’s emotions through the characters in the story and therefore are more likely to understand what is happening to some people. Reading fiction or novels also hone some people to giving immediate proper reaction to situation that may or may not be controlled. This is because novel readers are faced to the so-called image of reality than the nonfiction readers who are just presented with the fact and the current and usually have no explanation of the process of emotions happening in that particular situation. Below is the quotation from the said study which they took from a known writer. (Mar et al., pages 694-712) "Oh! it is only a novel! or, in short, only some work in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusion of wit and humour are to be conveyed to the world in the best chosen language." From Northanger Abbey (1818) by Jane Austen. We should understand that a novel is a piece of art, a masterpiece that can be considered. More often than not, it reflects the stories of this world that can all be related to the experiences of the writer. There are different theories that can be applied in the creation and reading of novels. However they are called fiction, still it can’t be removed that the fact that novels are written in different milieus and or background or environment, the glimpse of reality can always be seen. No matter how detached the author or the writer says he is, still, there will always appear a clue that a part of the writer can be seen from its masterpiece. This goes the same with the readers. There is a famous saying that you are what you read. In the case of reading novels, it is obvious that people get to absorb the emotion of the characters. Most of the times we hear people saying that they are in love or hey are in the state of grief because of what they read. In just this case we can see how in one way people get affected by the texts that they read and if this is the case, it also is not impossible to absorb fully the attitude and values of the novels that a person is reading. To further explain the point which we are currently raising, we can look at the satire shown in most novels specifically during the Victorian period. In the book “Satire in the Victorian Novel,” it said that once regarded as a satirist, it can be considered as saying something about that person. Perhaps we can think that this is just for the sake of curiosity that the information is told about a particular person but looking at it thoroughly, we get inkling that the name or adjective ‘satirist’ is already a reflection of identity of either the writer or the reader. (Russell, page 269) “As to the effect on the satiric product of a versatile mind, a prolific pen, or preoccupation with other affairs, no deduction seems possible. Lytton, Kingsley, and Butler were versatile and prolific both, to a degree. Thackeray and Trollope were prolific within a more limited range. As the target to the missile, so is its object to satire.” (Russell, page 270) “A target is in itself a thing of sufficient identity to be amenable to definition, -- even if that can be no more precise than "something aimed at." But in the concrete there are targets and targets. So, while the satirized may be reduced to an abstract entity, as deception or some other ubiquitous trait of human nature, there exist in fact as many varieties of the satirized as of satirists. Anything which any one may criticize, if it be subject to humorous treatment, may be a satirical object.” (Russell, page 167) The above mentioned proofs only try to satisfy the idea that novels, more than just affecting human‘s way of thinking, it also tells more about the processes that affect people’s decisions and behaviors. Margaret Atwood, an internationally acclaimed poet and short story writer is known for her irony and self-conscious narrator and symbolism. Her exploration between the relationship of human and nature became famous in identifying the peak of contemporary Canadian literature. She wrote the novel “The Edible Woman” and she also published a poetry collection entitled “Power Politics” which from the title itself, can already be thought of as reactive of the society and people. In this view, people should then be more flexible of this point and idea about the novels. If history has made its way out through the books that students learn in class, emotions and lessons of life also found its niche in the novels that haggle through time just to be read by people for them to learn and adapt strategies of life for the benefit of future understanding. SOURCES Baurbaum C., Charlton, M., Schweizer, C. 2002. Causal relationship Between Reading Socialization, Socioeconomic Variables, and Strategies for reading Novel. Onternational Congress IGEL University. Mar, R.A., Oatley, K., Hirsh, J., dela Paz, J. & Peterson, J.B. (2006). Bookworms versus nerds: exposure to fiction versus non-fiction, divergent associations with social ability, and the simulation of fictional social worlds. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 694-712. Russell, F.C. 1920. Satire in the Victorian Novel. Macmillan. New York. E-Notes. Margaret Atwood. Accessed on December 7, 2007 from http://www.enotes.com/short-story-criticism/atwood-margaret. Livergood, N. Profiling and Personality Simulation. Accesses on December 7, 2007 from http://www.hermes-press.com/program1.htm. Read More