What Makes a Piece Literature?

Some claims that every literature tries to make a specific point. A good writer they say always associates her opinion, ideas and thoughts in her or his masterpiece. Some produce literature purely for entertainment stressing that life is funny and humorous, some include many ironies highlighting that life is complicated and hard to understand, some literature especially those classics are for the purpose of political movement portraying the kind of values and morality the society has, some are for the purpose of religion and spirituality, some literature was made to emphasize creativity or unconventional way of creating a literature redefining the stereotypical characterization, themes, settings, conflicts and endings, and most importantly some literature are made for the purpose of persuasion. Literary works of writers especially from the past reflect their artistic interpretation of the world which is usually in the midst of inequalities, war and conflict. Literature basically speaks volumes about human ideas, emotions and nature that illustrate the kind of culture, religion and social orientation the writer has during the time he or she created it. There is no given absolute standard of what makes a piece a literature. Literature is basically the product of writer’s consciousness and experience. Literature can be always authentic or original. Most of the time, writer’s inputs in his writing is a mixture of acquired knowledge from the previous readings and his own (Elliot). In the earliest literature, the themes of something metaphysical are often explored especially in Greek and Roman literature during the time when most people were still in search of religion. One of the strongest and perhaps oldest emotions of mankind is fear, and the most intriguing fear is the fear of the unknown. The idea of fear inspires classic and contemporary writers to explore the things that cannot be seen or fully comprehended by human understanding, from the element of fear of the unknown to the exploration of something metaphysical that motivates detachment from life. As time passes by however, human interaction and attachment is increasing. There is a rapid development of ideas towards the standard of morality and ideal society. System and government arises and so inequality. Chaucer and Twain for example express their thoughts regarding inequalities of societal system through the stories and characters they created in their literature. Their works are considered timeless since the human problems they battled and experienced before are still being experience today. All literature is timeless in their own way since it explores human experience and human nature. Since everybody who can read literature is human, everybody can relate. There is no such thing as traditional literature when it comes to themes and symbolisms. What makes a literature traditional is that it was created long time ago.