This is an article about the insights a person can get out of novels in literature. The authors that are mentioned have won prominent awards and are very known. I do not provide a summary for the novels The Brief and Wondrous of Oscar Wao, Jazz, and Kindred. The influences of these novels range from maturity to wisdom. Learning life lessons from the literature are far better than learning it from life experiences.
In this semester, my favorite text was the Junot Diaz novel, The Brief and Wondrous of Oscar Wao. While reading this novel, I gained emotional wisdom. This novel taught me how to take life seriously and not hold on to unrequited relationships because they will take a toll on my life. Also, the message is that life is not all about love and guys, but life has a purpose. Furthermore, this novel has taught me to value family, to live life to the fullest, and to not waste the time we have on earth on useless people and things.
A scene in this novel that impacted me was when Beli was in a relationship with the gangster and I found out he was a Trujillo and so was his wife, who was related to the Trujillo she had sexual relations with in high school. The chapters with the gangster showed me Beli’s dark life and also could represent a lot of people’s lives. This scene showed me how far people go to want love. The surprising drama in this novel kept coming continuously as I read.
Another novel that I enjoyed this semester was Jazz, by Toni Morrison. The scene in Jazz that impacted me was when Violet came to Alice’s house and talked about the beginnings of Joe and Dorcas’ relationship. This scene also showed that it is not always good to rely on a man. No matter how much you love a person you can get figuratively blinded by them because they are still a human, who lies, steals, and cheats.
Lastly, I liked Kindred by Octavia Butler. My favorite scene was at the end when Dana’s arm was stuck in the wall, figuratively representing the twentieth and nineteenth centuries. This scene impacted me because it represents the minds of people of today who can not get mentally out of the past. Even though Dana loses an arm to live in the twentieth century, some people in reality never get out of the past both physically and mentally. I know I have mentioned three novels, but overall I loved Diaz’s The Brief and Wondrous of Oscar Wao because it changed my life and how I look at literature. It was best I learned these lessons through literature than through harder experience in my life.
