Learning From Literature

Donna Hess, M.A.

In this statement, Eliot implies that there is more to discerning literary excellence than evaluating the elements of a story. A story is literary if the key elements (conflict, character, plot, and resolution) are artfully presented and if the theme is significant. It is excellent if added to these literary elements is a positive moral tone.

The moral tone is the overriding philosophy of the story. This philosophy influences the way the literary elements are presented. It is also that part of a work that can make a book harmful even though "no one is consciously offended by it."

Most students are adept at spotting and rejecting blatantly objectionable elements in fiction and drama. Their parents, pastors, and teachers have helped them understand the pitfalls of worldly behavior, and they readily acknowledge that reading literature in which there is profane language and behavior can be harmful. But are they as skilled in discerning philosophies that could undermine their faith? For example, Jack London's The Call of the Wild has no profanity, no scatological realism, no erotic realism, no sexual perversion. However, the story implicitly promotes the ideas of Darwin and Nietzsche.

To help your students in discerning things that are excellent, have them answer the following questions as they read (or even as they watch television drama):

  1. Are the characters that I like noble?
  2. Do the actions of the story cause me to desire virtue and reject vice?
  3. Does the story's resolution reward good and punish evil or honor wisdom and scorn foolishness?
  4. Does the theme of the story conflict with God's truth? If it does, how? Where is the flaw?

Having students answer these questions will not only help them identify erroneous philosophies but will also encourage them to search God's Word for the refutation of such errors - a profitable exercise for all of us. As Eliot concludes in his essay, "It is our business, as readers of literature, to know what we like. It is our business, as Christians, as well as readers of literature, to know what we ought to like."

Reprinted from Balance, a publication of the School of Education, Bob Jones University. Used with permission of Bob Jones University. Please write BJU Press, for permission to reproduce this article.