For the most part this semester, I loved studying world literature. I realized it was the expository writing is the part that I did not love--my brain is more creative writing oriented--not the material itself. The material is pretty much all interesting, especially those pieces that I'm able to make important connections with, such as realizing the duality in humanity while reading Golding's Lord of the Flies, or during class discussions when the ideas of others spark such connections, but my favorite epiphany, if you will (hence the commonly recognized "light bulb going off in one's mind" analogy), is my realization that world literature is important. That by extension, it isn't just a bunch of boring work by a lot of dead guys that I have no hope of ever understanding, as I previously thought. Its importance, as I see it, boils down to the concept that world literature provides a window into the minds of people, past and present, that have experienced and/or do experience different cultures and hold different opinions than I do. World history may provide the facts, but it is world literature that provides the human prospective.
"Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be" (Campbell 127).
In this excerpt, Campbell uses the phrase "the focus of your consciousness" as a way to say prospective, or in this case, how one views other people's actions. By doing so, Campbell expresses that one's perspective determines which side of an issue one will take. The use of the opposing words "hero" and "monster" suggests that there are two sides, the differences between the them very obvious.
"Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant consumers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings..." (Swift 7).
Here, Swift uses a kind of verbal irony when discussing the possible events at which eating infants would be appropriate. By giving examples such as "weddings" and "christenings", celebrations of life and change, he is emphasizing how disturbing the suggestion of eating dead children truly is, in order bring attention to problems in society that, though not as obviously gruesome as his "modest proposal", he believes need to be brought to the public's attention.
"...Ralph went to Piggy and took the glasses from him...Piggy stood behind him, islanded in a sea of meaningless color..." (Golding 72-73).
When Piggy's glasses are taken away, the world becomes "a sea of meaningless color", expressing that they are a symbol of clarity. Golding uses the word the word "islanded" to emphasize how isolated one feels when unable to understand the world around oneself.
