Culture in Literature
The study of literature involves the study of people, societies and their associated cultures as a whole. Through the works of literature, the representation of a society’s culture can be interpreted. Authors normally represent culture through literature, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. There are some works of literature that represent a single culture while other works represent two or more cultures. One literary text that represents a single culture is the 1884 text by Mark Twain “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. One literary text that represents more than one culture is the 2000 text by Pam Muñoz Ryan, “Esperanza Rising”.
The text, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about a white boy named Huck who has to defy the odds and go through a lot of trouble to rescue and free a slave named Jim. This novel represents the American culture in the 19th century. A lot of American cultural values can be seen through the characters of Miss Watson and Widow Douglas. Widow Douglas adopts Huck and wants to civilize him. Civilization here included a number of things such as teaching him table manners, how to read and write, teaching him about the bible and religion, and dressing him nicely (Twain, 1884). All of these things are part of the American culture and they were being imposed on Huck even though he did not want them.
The other cultural value that is represented in the novel is people’s attitudes towards the slaves and slavery in general. The society believed that slavery was okay and that those slaves that ran away were bad. In addition, to help a runaway slave was equally bad. Even though Huck helps Jim, the runaway slave, Huck reflects the attitude that it is bad to help a runaway slave through the story. He feels bad about helping Jim and in several occasions, he almost tells on Jim. He sometimes feels that God is punishing him for deciding to help Jim (Twain, 1884). Therefore, in the American White culture, slavery was a good thing.
` On the other hand, the text Esperanza Rising is a story of a young Mexican girl from a rich family who owns a big ranch. When her father is murdered by her uncles, she and her mother flee to California. The story portrays two culture one in a wealthy family in Mexico and the other as a farm laborer in California’s Central Valley. In Mexico, the story brings out a culture of luxury and privileges as Esperanza enjoys a lot of material things. Six years later, in California as a farm laborer, she has none of the luxurious things she had back at home. She is in a culture where immigrants work on farms under very poor conditions (Ryan, 2000). It was a norm for Hispanic and other immigrants to become farm workers under very poor conditions with very little pay. This text is multicultural because it presents two cultures, the Mexican, and the American culture.
The two texts present the aspect of culture through the experiences of their main characters. Both of the characters are young and are struggling to understand how things worked the way they did. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn uses Huck a young boy (Twain, 1884) while Esperanza Rising uses Esperanza a young girl (Ryan, 2000). The use of children as the main characters in both texts was instrumental in questioning the cultures. Hack tries to go against the American culture by helping a runaway slave Jim. On the other hand, Esperanza has to deal with the American prejudice against the Hispanic people. The two literary works bring out that a given society’s culture can be harmful to the other people who are of a different origin and culture. While the American White culture was okay with slavery and use of Hispanic immigrants as farm laborers, such culture is portrayed as wrong by the texts. The two books criticize this oppressive culture.
Examining of culture through literature is of great importance. The use of culture in literature improves culture awareness among students and as a result they understand and appreciates the literary heritage of different cultures. Students usually benefit from literature that reflects their culture as they can be a very important tool in helping them to develop self-concept based on the knowledge of their cultural background. In addition, studying culture promotes understanding among different cultures. This is because it extends the students knowledge among a wide range of cultures which in turn leads to decreased stereotypes among individuals of other cultures. Multicultural literature shows the students that they have common human emotions and therefore further helps in the elimination of stereotypes against other cultures.
Literary works have always been used to represent cultures of different communities. Some texts only represent one culture, For instance, the text, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn only represents the American Culture. Other texts are multicultural as they represent more than one culture. For instance, Esperanza Rising represents the Mexican and American culture. It is important to examine culture through literature because it helps the students to understand and appreciate other cultures which in turn serve to reduce stereotypes against other cultures.
References
Ryan, P. M. (2000). Esperanza rising. New York: Scholastic Press.
Twain, M. (1884). The adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Oxford: Oxford University
