The Role of Community in English Literature - Essay Example

The role of community in Bret Harte’s ‘Outcasts of the Poker Flat’ becomes more prominent. The story is itself about the four people headed by John Oakhurst taking refuge at a place called Sandy Bars. In this story, the community plays the role of an antagonist and the author, through the community, is able to portray the example of local color and regionalism. In ‘A Mystery of Heroism’ written by Stephen Crane, the author’s message that to become a hero or a superhero, one essentially does not need to possess the qualities alike.

This could be portrayed only when the protagonist of the short story, Fred Collins, who is childish, is thrown into the community of the soldier. Again, the community plays an important role as a catalyst or as a backdrop to build the character and the story as well.In William Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’, again the protagonist Emily, who is also a psychopath, is shown alienated from the township. The community here plays a vital role in making Emily a staunch individual, due to probing and judgmental gossip about her.

Again, community plays a negative role in this story too. The negative attitude of the community makes Emily more staunch, aggressive and depressed.In Richard Wright’s story, ‘The Man Who Was Almost a Man’, the role of the community again becomes poignant and negative. The author shows the issue of racism through the racial and communal activities of the community in which Dave, the young African - American boy used to live.