Teachers and authors have said it since the beginning of education: reading and story-telling is the best way to share new and old knowledge. People tell stories for entertainment and to teach lessons to others. It can be easier to understand the solution to a problem when given an example. Reading classical literature or recently published books can still give the reader the same lesson, but with different examples and usage of language.
If someone reads the classics or just reads literature that was written in history, it can teach him or her more than a history lesson. This person will be able to attain knowledge.
Humans can only be so different from one another. It isn’t the situations we are put in that make us unique and special; however, it's our reaction to the problem that makes us change. History and change actually go hand in hand with one another. The spark of change means the ending of an era.
Sherman Alexie, an author, visits schools and talks to the students about reading, how it saved his life, and how it can save theirs. Just by reading he was able to learn more outside of the classroom and was able to give himself a well-rounded education outside of the classroom. Telling students to read and not live in the past or to follow in the footsteps of others encouraged students to change their fate.
Whether a person is reading for fun or reading to find new information, that person is taking someone else’s advice. Just as the author is indirectly giving people advice through stories and telling the person possible outcomes. Sometimes the stories will be completely irrelevant to the reader’s current dilemma and sometimes the similarities are so strong the reader will wonder if they have a stalker writing down their stories. Either way, the point of telling stories can be to give advice and show the reader a possible outcome, or several outcomes depending on the style of writing.
A reader can also learn someone else’s story and gain inspiration from the story itself. Voltaire wrote a novel titled Candide, a story about someone who had everything they wanted taken away from it. The story contains multiple characters who start out with a good life and then face more than one situation of conflict. The amazing part of the story is the endurance of the characters in the story. They never give up.
When an individual learns and accepts that bad things happen in life, but is able to realize that never giving up is the only solution, that is the greatest lesson. We have one life to live, we might as well be in-love with everything it has to offer.
