Literature is the mirror of human civilization. After evolution, the man tried to explore all the things around him. With the development of critical and creative knowledge, he tried to view nature, their day-to-day lifestyle, etc. in a very rational way. Their critical and creative hearts chased a vast area to view the grandeur of their own life. It gave a comfortable life for them by saving the equilibrium of happiness and sorrow. So this elegantly manifests that the birth of literature is the human heart. However, the fetus of literature is the art of nature. That art is the mysterious brain of mankind as a human is the most wonderful art of Mother Nature.
Literature is the bright light ray that illuminates our life. Arts and literature are very valuable and powerful subjects around the world. It is applicable for all the times and it is universal. Every country involves an endemic type of arts and literature. Somehow the literature represents the identity of one’s own country.
Literature is a bond made up of many creative feelings. This suggests that literature is a very strong, conscience full feeling in one’s heart. Literature is born in the hearts of mankind. We remind that literature and arts have been revolving around the world since the beginning of ancient civilizations. Around the world, there are many symbols of arts and literature which help to realize the history of countries. Literature was used by early sages to expand their philosophical and religious ideas among people. Even many morals were communicated among ordinary people through literary works. So it manifests that the literature facilitated ancient people to live a comfortable, joyful life as heaven.
As well as the foundation of our life is literature. Therefore it becomes the greatest expenditure that is inscribed in pages and powered by the imagination of the reader. Ultimately literature teaches the readers about the life experiences from even the saddest stories to the most joyful ones which captivate their hearts and plunder their eyes.
Literature and arts expel our negative emotions such as anger, temper, and fear. Literature has a mysterious power and divinity to create a sensitive man. Literature illuminates our life as the sun illuminates the dark sky by expanding its bright light rays. It is an excellent remedy for tasting the reality of the spiritual mind.
Literature prevails everywhere. It enables people to generate real feelings. It can change a cruel person to a highly sensitive one at a second. Literature is metaphorically compared to the crown of freedom by many philosophers. As well as literature is a paradise of love. Literature is just like a bird who is flying freely around the beautiful azure world. It spreads beyond the horizon. Actually, literature is rich with many positive attitudes. Literature is a cascade that seems to be the heart of a country as it distributes love, passion, compassion, and affection as our mother’s warmth.
Literature lives especially in the hearts and minds of people. Lovers of literature know the delicacy of literary life. They can mix the rhythm of delicate nature with the sensitive side of mankind. Literature can expand the good qualities of humans. It is really like meditation because it develops our spiritual status of mind.
By living with literature, we can spend our time effectively. As well as we can understand the reality of life and the reality of society. From the early stages, the kingdom of literature and arts become different and different. There are many eras of the development of literature. The development of modern literature through the literature of early stages gives major evidence to understand the differences between those two types.
Literature is changing from country to country, as well as from culture to culture. In a civilized society, literature is the main factor that dominates social ethics. English literature is based on western culture while Sinhala literature is based on eastern culture. However, there are many literature identities in various countries. There may be many literary aspects in the same country due to the variations of cultures, traditions. Religious beliefs or languages. Their styles are also different.
In our small paradise Sri Lanka, the old Sinhala language and literature depict how much the attractive development of the mysterious feelings of early literature lovers. Our old literature represents the identity of our country. So we must get proud of our live pearl, Sri Lanka.
Brilliant literature is a very expensive and charming field. It cannot be sold or brought from any marketplace. One must be very sensitive to understand literature.
Literature and arts developed from period to period. So it bonds with many artistic emotions and with the thousands of styles from era to era.
When we consider the Sinhala literature, there were many kings who contributed to the development of that field. King 2nd “Parakramabahu” even wrote a book called “kavusillumina”. This greatly manifests that his desire for great literature. So it emphasizes that early kings gave an important place to the literature and arts. Through the experiences of literature, they built many statues as real creatures with real emotional appearances with insensitive, silent stones. They built enormous tanks and thought creatively to preserve those tanks. Early wise men very tactfully used their commonsense and practical knowledge bonded with nature and literature to do works efficiently.
According to the great book, “Paramaththajathaka,” sixty devotees ordained by hearing a song sang by a woman about the reality of birth, death, and horrible illnesses. Even this elaborates to us that the field of literature has been developing since the first kingdom, Anuradhapura as this great book belongs to the kingdom of Anuradhapura. However such historical pieces of evidence depict how much our old literature is powerful enough to change a life.
As well as Polonnaruwa, Senkadagala, Dambadeniya, Kurunegala, Kotte and Sri Jayawardhanpura Kotte are some of the developed eras of Sri Lankan literature. The golden age of Sri Lankan literature is the kingdom of Kotte because we find that many literary lovers rose in that period. Some of them are, Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula Thero, Maurapadha Thero, and Vaththawe Thero. As well as many books were bloomed in that golden age.
“Poojawali”, Sddharmarathnavali”, “Ummagga jataka story” and “Buthsarana” are some of the old books which have a great literary value. Those books were written using amazing styles. Not only early people even we are captivated with such attractions. “ Sirithmaldama”, “Subhashithaya” are literary books that teach us many good qualities. Through literature, we can make our life simple and penetrate fully.
Folk tales and idiomatic expressions are other sides of literature. Those bond with many feelings of the human heart like sadness, happiness, fear, surprise, and other positive and negative emotions. So people can really understand the sorrow of a life of a small cottage and the delightful facilities in a high-class castle. But literary mind views the deep horrible unhappy life in a high-class castle over the peace of the small cottage. Sometimes literature creates a bit of humor. It compares and contrasts human weaknesses and often generates social satire. As well as sometimes nature is exaggerated by literary lovers. Literature lovers can give supernatural powers to inanimate objects.
Many literature lovers around the world bring out the importance of children’s literature. In our country, Kumarathunga Munidhasa, Mahinda Thero, Martin Wickramasinghe are very famous poets and children novelists who illuminated the field of children’s literature. The best example is Mrs. Sibil Weththasinghe. She won an international prize for her great creative work, “Kuda Hora” (Thief of Umbrella) which persuade the mind of children to explore literature from their youngest stage. As well as those types of literary works captivate and plunder the hearts and eyes of small children. It improves their imaginative power and creativity. Not only that, children can be made behave through literature. We can motivate children to be sensitive to nature and every creature through stories. Especially the literary songs of Mahinda Thero improved the patriotic feelings of children at the time of British rule in Sri Lanka. So it illustrates to us that literature can change the minds of children. In the modern world, children’s literature is based on the world of fantasy, superstitious beliefs, supernatural and magical wonders, heroic nature, irony, and exaggerations. Those timeliness themes help children to improve their literary life.
Sri Lankan dramas are also a kind of literature and take a golden name. Sinhabhahu, Maname like dramas give the proper pieces of evidence to depict the fertility of the drama field. Many “Sandeesha” books also play a major role when we consider our old literature. Especially many supernatural exaggerations are found in those books. In one place Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula Thero says the sun is setting in the western mountains as a red burning ball. So this emphasizes how much the power of literature to see the beauty of nature in a different, amazing way.
English literature is also developed in eras like the Victorian era, Romantics, Naturalism, and the contemporary era. Many English novelists, poets, dramatists, and translators win the hearts of both people in the western and eastern parts. A great English philosopher, Sir Francis Baken said that literature is very important to a proper, complete, and ideal life. As well as in Sinhala literature English authors and poets appreciate nature, human qualities, and emotions and even generate humor through exaggerating human weaknesses.
Famous novelists such as R.K. Narayan who wrote many books like The Vendor of Sweets, Tom Swayer’s author Mark Twain, Enid Blyton who wrote the books like Famous Five, The Naughtiest Girl in the School, The Secret Seven, etc., Roald Dahl, J.K.Rowling and Sonali Deraniyagala are some brilliant characters in the field of English literature. Even dramatists such as Anton Chekhov, Yu Zuwa Junji Kinoshita, etc., and short story writers such as Saki, Oscar Wilde have won the hearts of readers all over the world. So they are living forever in the hearts and minds of people from generation to generation. The famous movie, Harry Potter is the story of the novelist, J.K. Rowling. Even that book also translated into many languages. This suggests that literature lovers can feed people through their own creative thoughts. When we consider the famous writer Roald Dahl, he has won the hearts of many children all over the world. His books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, are converted to movies also. So the literature comes from different modes. We have to taste them and be happy. The Bear is a famous play that comes under the category of social satire. It was written by Anton Chekhov and displays the inquisitiveness of people. Even we are reminded that the literary books depict the identity of one’s own country through the descriptions about their culture and social behaviors. Here, in the same way, Chekhov brings out the Russian social status and male chauvinism practiced in that period of time through the general sarcasm. Yu Zuwa’s drama, The Twilight of a Crane is bonded with a Japanese folk tale and displays many themes like money and greed, tradition versus modernity, nature, and corruption, etc. R.K.Narayan is also a symbol who represents Indian tradition and culture through his books.
We can learn many lessons through literature.
The old adage “appearances are deceptive,” is greatly depicted in the poem, “The Clown’s Wife by Johnson Agard”. Here this poet gives an idea about social status and how people suffer and play an extremely different role when they expose to society. So this poem manifests how literature lovers find the reality of society by using their creativity and critical evaluation.
“On the stage, he is a different person,
Up there, he is a king on a throne,
But at home, you should hear him moan.”
Our life is a fine display of the ironic difference between appearance and reality. We cannot make a decision by seeing the external characteristics of a person. Somehow, the real life of the person is completely different from his pretending character. The public representation is only a deceptive story if we hope to believe it. Here the clown is a professional jester. So the audience believes that he is happy in his personal life as well. But this poem says the audience’s belief is totally wrong as the clown is moaning in his inner heart due to intolerable hardships. But he has a wholesome smile on the stage. The audience fails to understand the reality beyond that mysterious smile. So we can assume that the literature lovers find the truth of our duality, life. This is the special rational aspect of literature.
In society, people are divided according to class, wealth, skin color, and political ideologies. But color discrimination comes to the peak level, especially in America. The poetess Maya Angelou depicts how people suffer due to this color discrimination through her critical work, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. She explains the extreme freedom given to white Americans and how much the caged life of Black Americans. She uses the symbols free bird and the caged bird to depict that difference.
Actually, she used literature to earn their rights, without being mobs. She destroyed the gloomy destiny of black Americans by using the great weapon, literature. So sometimes literature becomes a weapon to our challenges and it is a mode of displaying expressions. Literature can cure the evil aspects of us. It enhances the peace.
“The free bird leaps
On the back of the wind……”
“The caged bird sings
With a fearful thrill”
Emily Dickinson, John Keats, and William Blake are some of the poets we found in western literature who appreciated nature.
Nature is the most talented artist in the world. Those literature lovers viewed it through their creativity. So the nature can create her own needs by herself for survival. As well as she gives too much love, affection, and compassion to her inmates. So the Mother Nature is an independent artist. Literature teaches us this. Even it teaches us that they are not mere creatures but have different personalities in their domain even though we expand our mercy over them. Literature teaches us that man is not the lord of nature but simply a part of it even though he is eager to dominate it.
“Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers,
And rowed him softer home.”
Emily Dickinson’s A Bird Came Down the Walk greatly represents the above idea. The narrator offers him a crumb, a stale leftover piece of food. But the bird flies away rejecting it. Even he doesn’t make a short glance for it as he wants to remind us that nature doesn’t depend on human beings. This is the idea of the poet. Poet is a product of literature. Literature is living in the lifeblood of wise people.
Even literature teaches us the value of relationships. Society depends on peaceful bonds and relationships. Family relationships are the origin of it. If there is a great bond among the family members, it illuminates a new world as the sun refreshes the earth every morning. This idea is greatly elaborated through the poem Breakfast by Jacques Prevert. So this suggests that how poets use universal theorems to make people aware of their behaviors.
Literature has the ability to depict the generation gap and the various thinking patterns. It is like a moderate thinker as it fills the gap between modernity and traditional beliefs. The poet John Keats in his ode, To the Nile, greatly illustrates this idea.
Sometimes literature teaches good behaviors indirectly through sarcasm. The best example is Rudyard Kipling’s The Camel’s Hump. He describes the difficulties of gluttons and couch potatoes, the lazy people, and criticizes them as creatures that bear ugly lumps. He says about the impacts of laziness. If people too much eat, without working they become overweight, it destroys their whole physical and mental wellbeing. Poet brings a cure for this common illness.
“The cure for this illness is not to sit still,
Or frowst with a book by the fire,
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And dig till you gently perspire”.
While synchronizing the above facts it is proved that literature prevails everywhere.
However, in the modern materialistic race, people forgot their grace. They are running behind the glitters, the wealth, and power. They cannot bear the progress of others. They are running by pushing each other. As well as because of globalization, industrialization, urbanization, etc. people forgot the literature. They forgot the taste of literature and don’t pay much attention to literary uses because they have become the victims of monotonous and mechanical life.
So to improve the attention towards literature a month of literature is begun. In Sri Lanka, it is the month of September. So we must celebrate the value of literature. People must love and taste it. Then they can learn many things. They can find solutions for many problems of them from their own efforts. It will develop our whole mental, physical, social, and spiritual life. We can live a comfortable lifestyle when we are bonded with literary life. Just like a teacher, the field of literature will make a colorful world. Then from any age, we can critically evaluate all the things around us and appreciate their qualities of them. Literature is the only gateway for an adult to come to their young childish life through imaginative power. So this is very beautiful. I plead you to be a friend of literature and improve your life through creativity.
By A.H.Sahanma Methyanie, Sri Lanka
Participate in Creative writing Contest & International Essay Contest and win fabulous prizes.
