Being an English major has really opened my eyes to the world around me. I think in this day and age, with technology at our fingertips, it makes it easy to stay in our own world. We have our couple hundred friends on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. that we follow, and that becomes our social world. We may follow the celebrities, but I don't think that those are a good depiction of what life is really like. Aside from the celebrities we may follow some news accounts, but I don't think that this generation is as concerned with world news as they should be. I know that I am very guilty of staying in my own happy social media bubble.
But after reading countless novels this semester, I've come to see what so many other people experience, even if it was just 10-20 years ago, it seems a lifetime different from my life and experiences. I mean, you read about China's communism, and how that affects even the mutual love shared between a man and a woman...Or you read about the accounts of black slaves in America. After reading some first hand accounts, I think that a lot of literature about slavery has been toned down so as not to disturb the general population. Or reading about the politics in Russia anytime in the 20th century... It's all so new and completely foreign to me.
And that's why I think that books are so important in our society. They not only help us become aware of the events going on in the world, but usually they are a look inside the mind of someone that experienced it. Like when you read Slaughterhouse 5. The inner workings of the mind of Kurt Vonnegut are something special, and something horrid. I would ever want to experience the things he went through, simply because I was able to see the aftermath that those things took on his body and mind, and it's terrifying.
Sometimes I think this world gets lost in their friend's status or food picture, and they aren't bothering to look at the bigger picture.
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