HUMANIZING EDUCATION THROUGH LITERATURE

Carolina U. Garcia

A group of friends, graduates from the same university, met at a reunion. Now practicing
different professions, they exchanged views and plans for the future.

“My ambition,” began a brilliant criminal lawyer, “is to defend a client successfully, wherever
he be innocent or guilty.”

“Following that line of thought,” countered a surgeon, “mine is to save every patient from
death, or at least from suffering.”

“To arrive at a correct verdict in every case is all I hope for,” volunteered a judge.

A clever businessman hastened to say, “If I can make an honest million, I shall be happy.”

“What about you?”, someone asked the only writer in the group. “What do you want of my
life?”

“To become a complete human being,” was the quick and startling answer.

Perhaps many of us would instantaneously react to such an opinion with surprise and
scepticism. Yet that author could be so right. To be human, it is commonly accepted, is to
have power as well as weaknesses, to feel superior yet at times inadequate, to cherish ideals,
but to fall short of them. Of these polarities, the more frequent tendency is to take refuge in
our imperfections as an excuse if not an apology, for our failures and inadequacies. As a
popular song puts it: “Sapagkat tayo ay tao lamang.” This excuse, for such it is, is a poor
apology that cannot gloss over our faults. For if a man be weak, and of course, very often he
is, there is another side of human nature. To say that he is the lord of all created being
sounds boastful and pompous. But man is naturally just that. For to be human, is to have been
created in God’s own image. Man has generously been endowed with capacities and yes,
opportunities for attaining his exalted destiny. So why consider being human as an apology for
departing from honest, courageous behavior? Why should it even be offered as a justification
for a lapse from grace? Should we not rather live up proudly to our humanity as a
proclamation of commitment to justice and truth?

To be human is to master an art, “the art of living”. Of all the arts, it is the most demanding,
the most challenging, but the most rewarding. To be human is to develop our potentials, to
create for ourselves and our families, our neighbors, our nation an atmosphere of what
Matthew Arnold called sweetness and light – the sweetness of beauty, the light of truth! To
achieve such a goal is to begin with ourselves, with our education; to supplement the learning
gleaned from books, from school, from teachers and fellowmen; to exert efforts, to raise
ourselves above our environment, proper and comfortable though it be, in order to scale the
heights of self- progress and advancement. To be human is not only to acquire knowledge and
wisdom for ourselves. It is not just to bask in the radiance of truth and beauty. It is also to
seek the spread of beauty and truth, to illumine and sweeten the lives of others. No one truly
develops his humanity unless he be aflame with the desire to diffuse among others, the
beauty and wisdom that he has garnered for himself. To achieve this goal, one must first seek
the effective way of educating himself through the help of schools, of teachers, of experience
and of life.
If education is a process, a becoming, then it presupposes a passing from relative ignorance to
the fullness of knowledge, a growth towards perfection, a development of all the human
faculties – physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. Education concerns itself with
guiding the learner in the pursuit of his intended foal. First of all, education leads the student
to know himself, then to know other men, and to learn how to move with wisdom and grace
in the sphere which he has chosen for himself or to which circumstances have led him.

The usual preparation in the pursuit of a career, whether in the arts or the sciences, is the
acquisition of a broad background. This becomes a stepping stone to a more definite goal.
The objective of such a program is to enlarge the student’s intellectual background, before
he centers his sights on a field of specialization. To plunge the student, at the very start, into
an intense training in a specific area is to make him miss the wider horizons that would
broaden his outlook and enrich it. Yet, being an age of specialization, ours highly esteems and
appreciates whoever excels in a field no matter how limited it is, no matter how it narrows
his vision and effort. In science, take medicine as an example. Gone is the era of the
indefatigable general practitioner. Most renowned doctors are specialists – of the heart, the
liver, the lungs. One no longer finds being an EENT specialist, adequate. He drops the ENT
and concentrates on the E. Quite a number opt to specialize in only one disease or defect of
the eye: glaucoma, the detachment of the retina, or the transplantation of the cornea.
Admittedly, this decision has its reasons and its compensations; though not in terms of money
at all. Such a specialist becomes a true expert – he saves countless patients from becoming
sightless, snatches victims to safety away from misery and despair. Nevertheless, the
broadening of the student’s background is indispensable. It is the reason behind the
requirement of preparatory courses for such degrees as those in medicine and law. It
certainly enhances the stature of a doctor of medicine, if he should also be proficient or at
least, knowledgeable in music, literature, painting and the other arts. Better still, if he is
capable of speaking, arguing and writing intelligently on important topics. Take language as a
flexible, effective instrument for expression and communication. Whoever has a command of
language wields a tool for reaching and enlisting the attention of his fellowmen specially in
important issues. To speak and write effectively is to possess a powerful weapon for winning
assent to any measure one sponsors or advocates. It is a means of reaching the minds and the
hearts of men.

In the past, in the nineteenth century for example, the goals of education were diversified
according to the class of society to which one belonged. Thus art was studied was studied and
enjoyed as “both a necessity and a prerogative” for the so-called upper classes. The reason
was two-fold: “to give the members of this class cultural polish and to prepare them for a
way of life dominated by leisure.”1 These people acquired at least a veneer of culture that
was deemed sufficient so that the leisure conferred on them by wealth and ease could be
used pleasurably and profitably. According to eminent British historian, Arnold Toynbee, “to
be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization.”2 But what about the
working classes? At the time, leisure for them was even more limited than it is now.
Consequently, education prescribed utilitarian goals. Their education was centered on the
practical and the pragmatic. They studied in the trade schools, similar to the vocational
schools of our time. They acquired skill in the plying of their trade. Any yearning for mental
expansion or for the consolation of beauty was stifled by the arduous task of earning a living.
If you consider our school curricula, you will notice that, in general, colleges and universities
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require the study of the humanities for the liberal arts, as for culture-oriented courses such
as Arts and Letters, or Philosophy and Letters, Education and Architecture. Yet in our
University, the College of Science in its general B.S. course leading to the study of medicine,
prescribes 18 units for English and Literature. The curriculum includes not only the study of
English and Literature. The curriculum includes not only the study of English and Pilipino but
also of Philippine Literature, British and American writers, Literary Forms and Types, Art
Appreciation. Many decry this inclusion of Literature and the Humanities in a predominantly
scientific curriculum. Even in the Faculty of Arts and Letters in which the humanities are
emphasized, some wonder why all Juniors, irrespective of their major studies, have to take
up World Literature for two semesters. But time and experience have proved often enough
the advantage of studying Language and Literature. One significant proof is the ability of
students to express themselves correctly and fluently in recitations, discussions and
examinations and to understand the text studied. The study of Language and Literature
enhances and develops not only understanding of meaning but also the power of expression.
This is one aspect of the humanizing influence of literature, for if man is the only creature
capable of speech and writing, why should education neglect the means of developing these
powers? Should educators not grasp every opportunity and instrument to quicken learning and
at the same time to make possible its communication? Learning is not to be kept to one’s self,
for egoism, deliberate or thoughtless, debases rather than humanizes the individual. One
proof is the existence of intellectual snobs and the so-called high brows, who by the way,
have been aptly described as persons educated beyond their intelligence.

The Humanities, as part of a liberal education, seeks the broadening of man’s vision and his
behavior. They are usually accepted as branches of learning, the chief aim of which is to
prepare man to learn and enjoy the benefits of art and aesthetics, of fine and gracious living,
but committed to developing empathy with his fellowmen – empathy being understood as “the
art of being able to see beyond oneself.”3 Janaro and Altshuler consider the study of
humanities as “an on-going process but which each of us can practice the art of being human
– to participate in the full richness of the human experience.” 4 They regard the humanities as
“the record of what humankind has done with its humanness.” 5 Thus, the study of the
humanities stimulates man’s yearning for beauty, his idealism, his love for mankind through
the emphasis on the arts as opposed to activities geared towards the useful, the practical, the
utilitarian.

The humanities include arts such as literature, painting, sculpture, music and architecture. A
painting not only pictures a landscape or a view, a portrait or still life. It says something
mutely but eloquently to the perceptive beholder. Who has ever stood before Da Vinci’s
“Mona Lisa” or Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” or the Christ of Velasquez without the feeling of
involvement in a momentous experience? A painting evokes a sense of awareness, suggests
participation in the painter’s experience. A responsive emotion seizes the beholder. For the
moment, he receives a distinct impression, an emotional reaction, no matter how fleeting,
which he shares with the painter. The sense of life, of color, of light and shadows impinges
upon his consciousness. The painter has passed on to him an insight, perhaps a revelation.
Something similar occurs in viewing a piece of sculpture. It is no longer the cold marble, a
piece of inanimate stone or wood that one looks at. The figure comes alive in the sensitive,
magical hands of the artist. The flex of a muscle, the graceful folds of a garment, an agonized
look on the face of a dying gladiator have been immortalized by art. It can instantaneously
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communicate shades and nuances of emotion sometimes more forcefully and eloquently than
words. In its turn, what can architecture do? More closely related to practical ends,
architecture, nevertheless, is a fine art and one of the humanities. A building, for example, is
a structure of wood or stone, intended for various purposes; for people to live in, to work in,
to serve as a schoolhouse, etc. But fundamentally, a building is an integration of an idea or a
vision. Rising gracefully into existence, it could, like the Taj Mahal at Agra, be a poem in
marble, revealing to the beholder the imperishable quality of one man’s capacity to love
deeply. Or like the spires of the Cathedral at Cologne as illumined at night, rise from the
surrounding darkness to declare man’s yearning for the eternal.

This paper, however, is centered on the art of literature as a means of humanizing education.
As one of the humanities, literature does not contradict or countermand the benefits accruing
from the emphasis on other educational objectives. It exists, except in the study of the
humanities as a major, as a supplement or a complement to the scientific or general areas of
education. Since education aims not only to stimulate and develop man’s intellect but also his
emotions in order to humanize him, educators have found in the arts the means of humanizing
education.

Literature is regarded as the foremost among the humanities of “those instrumentalities by

which man becomes more completely human”. As a mirror and an expression of life,
literature initiates the student and the individual in general, into looking at the world around
him, at the people surrounding him, and finally into his inner self. Literature is about human
beings – their daily lives as well as their exceptional, towering experiences. But how does
literature humanize the education that seeks man’s happiness and fulfilment? One path to
understanding is the realization of the nature, the functions and the values of literature as a
fine art humanizes education. Though a formal or scientific education is of incalculable value,
a weakness is felt if the strictly formal instruction is not supplemented and humanized by
literature and other branches of the humanities. One can start with the agencies serving as
factors in this humanization. The teacher has an obviously important role in this process. It is
he who must guide and encourage, unobtrusively, the students’ progress in the exploration of
the possibilities offered by literature. To accomplish such a task effectively the teacher must
possess or acquire certain capacities. These need not be of an extraordinary nature or
degree, specially at the beginning of a teaching career. The teacher need not be a paragon,
but an intelligent, moral human being he must certainly be. His integrity and seriousness are
taken for granted. Moreover, patience, a certain understanding of human nature, tolerance
and conscientiousness are expected of him. Fortunately, most of these qualities can be
developed. Perception and sensitiveness, warmth and generosity of feeling humanize the
teacher and his students. Humility in teaching and learning is indispensible and is the mark of
the true scholar. A capacity for self-criticism lends sharpness to the desire for self-
improvement. A sense of humor helps the teacher not to take himself too seriously as well as
to survive moments of awkwardness and tension. The emphasis on the teacher’s qualities
points to them as effective aids to the humanization of the individual and by extension, that
of his use of literature towards his objective. One other requirement is the understanding and
use of language. For his part, the student may be expected to develop understanding of
language though at a lower degree. Without such an attainment, his task of understanding,
interpreting and absorbing the ideas and feelings expressed in literature will be negligible.
Therefore even the minimum requirement for enjoying the humanizing of education through
literature will be reduced to the lowest possible level.
The nature, function and values of literature help to clarify the role of this art in humanizing
education. Though literature has been called many things through the centuries, its
distinction as one of the humanities stands out. It is the expression and communication of a
vital human experience. Though other arts manifest the same objectives, literature is easily
distinguished by its technique and its style. Making use of an intellectual instrument, namely
language, literature stands conspicuously as the most intellectual of the arts. Take music
which is basically emotional, or painting which is mostly visual, and the salient quality of
literature in blending the visual with the emotional, the intellectual with the spiritual,
becomes easily recognizable.

In sweeping through the whole range of human experience, literature usually singles out the
significant and meaningful, whether it be in the realm of the ordinary or that of the rare. The
only requisite is that it be vital and true, not in the sense of having happened but in that of
being in Aristotle’s words “necessary and probable.” Whether literature, as a fine art,
stresses the verifiable or the imaginary and ideal as suffused “with the light from another
world”, the chosen experience must have the power to win assent even from the most
fastidious reader. In other words, not only must the experience be true, its truth must shine
out. It must be illuminating like James Joyce’s “epiphany”. It must give the reader a sense of
participation in a vital human experience. And this means particularly that literature must be
both a component and an instrument in the process of humanizing education through this
particular art.

Three factors loom largely in this endeavour at the humanization of education. The objective
must be accomplished through: (1) the stimulation of the intellect, (2) an appeal to the
emotions and (3) the energizing of the moral fibre in man.

The intellect places man above all creation. His capacity to think distinguishes him from the
animal and vegetable kingdoms. He shares this prerogative with no other created being on
earth. It is therefore the appeal of literature make a deliberate appeal to the intellect. A
short lyric or a tuneful song, an unpretentious story with a slight plot and simple
characterization, a charming personal essay need not be strongly intellectual. But literature
which aspires to endure must be suffused with the radiance of the intellect.

It takes a great deal of actual living or serious study to improve our vision of life – that factor
which shapes, guides and determines so much of human decisions and actions. Whether as
creative writers or habitual readers, people are influenced if not indeed constrained by their
understanding of human life and nature, their perception and assessment of the human
condition, their attitude towards experience. Literature exercises its power in the
enlargement of our mental vision – in extending our intellectual of vision, literature wields an
influence in the shaping and perfection of man’s vision. Literature should facilitate the fusion
of the humanities and education in the core of our beings.

Yet the primary function of literature is not the development of the mental faculties,
praiseworthy though it be. Like any other art, its foremost aim is to arouse and sustain delight
and pleasure in the heart and the mind. It must be stressed, however, that the power of such
emotion is linked with the action of the intellect so that the pleasure thus aroused is
aesthetic, intellectual and even spiritual.

The span and radius of one’s life are seldom so extensive as to include all sorts of experience.
Rare is the person who can claim to vastness and variety of action, emotion and thought.
Through literature and avid and intelligent reader invades greener fields, garners large
sectors of knowledge. Through literature he meets people, the likes of whom his own limited
orbit does not include: persons of varied temperaments, abilities and culture. His reading
ranges from the placid and ordinary to the colorful, the astounding, the exceptional. No
constraining boundaries keep him off strange unexplored grounds. This enlargement of the
mental vision would be useless unless accompanied by the sharpening of both the internal and
the external senses, which should be attuned to each other. Not only the functions of the
mind per se, but also the sense impressions should play a part in man’s thinking. With the
enlargement of the mind should come the deepening of thought and perception. Thinking
should foster subtlety and profundity of thought. Literature elevates man’s intelligence
beyond the practical and utilitarian – that combination which shackles human aspirations to
the ground, to the solid earth and no higher. The range of thought stimulated by great or
significant literature leads to the free, untrammelled exercise of sensibility and imagination.
Imaginative power is released towards the creative and the constructive. The function of the
imagination ordinarily accepted as image building is further explained by Coleridge as the
mental faculty that “dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate – or at all events,
struggles to idealize and to unify.”6 Its service to creative literature is obviously significant.
Its effect is to amplify the function of the mind, to render it resilient and sensitive in
reconciling opposites, in visualizing relationships and contrasts, in harmonizing diverse mental
activities. All of these capacities as carried out in literature, contribute to humanize
education.

Even the most adventurous spirit is fettered by everyday life in its monopoly and
repetitiousness. Most require a lively and alert mind, a perceptive outlook, a lively
imagination to recognize the novelty, the color and the excitement of ordinary living. If we
cannot indeed make the discovery for ourselves, there are the literary works in which to find,
not substitutes, but instruments for a vigorous mental life. Mental excitement is not confined
to high adventures in fiction. The realm of thought offers to its own brand of highlights.
Whoever said that the intellect is cold is guilty of an error in judgment. The intellect burns
with its own power, its own flame, its own vital life. The intellect can and has often set the
world on fire. Emotions, specially the violent, soon exhaust themselves. Ideas and ideals live
on.

Examples of the effect of literature on the mind are numerous. The greatest creative geniuses
in poetry gifted man with instances of mental stimulation: Dante in “The Divine Comedy”,
Shakespeare in his great tragedies, Milton in “Paradise Lost”, Goethe in “Faust”, Vyassa and
Valmiki in their Indian epics are a few of the authors and works which exemplify the emphasis
on the intellectual. They present vistas, dazzling and true, which stimulate the mind to
vigorous activity. Without being an original or profound philosopher, Shakespeare yet
succeeded in impressing upon audiences and readers, truths of human experience raised to
the universal level. They stimulate the mind to grasp the truths which govern our lives. More
strikingly he awakens what the essayist De Quincey called “the sympathy with
truth”.7Shakespeare’s characters are the creatures of flesh and blood, endowed with a
vigorous life of their own. They carry out Aristotle’s admonition that such characters may be
idealized by the poet but he should make them true to type. The dramatist “makes us see
their virtues and weaknesses, their likeness to ourselves, their meaning for our lives. He does
not directly preach or moralize, but he has the power to make real and vivid the ideal or

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spiritual qualities of mankind. Out of the highest concepts of courage, patriotism, nobility of
spirit, the sense of honor and sacrifice, Shakespeare built a splendid vision of life.”

Shakespeare’s tragedies are studded with jewel-like incidents of dramatic and

emotional intensity. But here and there, are quieter, less arresting moments none the less
exquisite for being unpretentious. Such as the meeting of Desdemona and Iago set
inconspicuously between Othello’s unjust and savage accusation of Desdemona for infidelity
and the tragedy of her death swiftly followed by Othello’s suicide. Desdemona’s pure and
trusting nature recoiled against the inexplicable injustice of Othello. Cut off from her father
and home, despairing of convincing Othello of her innocence, she turned for help to Iago,
ironically the very person who had poisoned her husband’s mind against her. Were it possible,
Iago would have refused the summons of Desdemona, but most reluctantly he went to see
her. Iago’s wife Emilia, Desdemona’s attendant, indignantly told Iago of the source of
Desdemona’s distress. Emilia, worldly-wise and mundane, had an implicit faith in
Desdemona’s innocence which Othello now doubted. A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean critic,
comments on this scene as the juxtaposition of an almost completely evil one. Shakespeare,
without any direct comment, indicates the presence of at least a tinge of distress in Iago
when unable to witness further Desdemona’s anguish, he could only say “Lady, do not weep,
Alack the day!” Turning away, he murmured as he hurriedly left, “Go in, and weep not; all
things shall be well.”

Picking examples at random from modern literature, one cannot overlook the
intellectual dramas of George Bernard Shaw or the cerebral plays of Luigi Pirandello. Shaw
infused into British drama, the strains of intellectuality the absence of which had made the
British theatre overly sentimental and artistically flabby. Pirandello electrified his audience
with the onslaught of thoughts and ideas, clashes of illusion and reality, of life and art. He
carried on what Ibsen had created as the theatre of ideas, the problem on what Ibsen had
created as the theatre of ideas, the problem play, the blending of Realism with Symbolism.
Among them, these playwrights converted the stage into a platform for debating and
discussing ideas. The German Brecht capped the trend in drama with the creation of an epic
theatre in which emotions are relegated to the background and the appeal to the mind is
superimposed upon all. For poetry, though the Metaphysical Poets lived in the seventeenth
century, their theories and practices have become influential even in contemporary poetry.
These poets propounded the ideal blending of feeling and thought. Their poetry expresses
emotion intellectually. Every poem is given an intellectual framework. It believes that far
from being antithetical, emotion and intellect are complimentary aspects of the same reality.

It is in a poet of classical antiquity, Homer, that one finds the harmonious blending of
thought and feeling. One instance is in the last book of epic – the meeting between Priam,
the aged king of beleaguered Troy and Achilles, the slayer of Priam’s son, the gallant Hector.
Priam had gone secretly to the Greek camp to ransom Hector’s body even knowing that
discovery of his presence there would mean death. At the moment, Achilles was resting in his
tent, his fury over Hector’s killing of a dearest friend Patroclus, in no way lessened by the
revenge he had inflicted on Hector. Suddenly, Priam knelt at Achilles’ feet and reminded the
young Greek leader that he was raising his hands in supplication to the slayer not only of
Hector, but his other sons as well. “If you cannot be moved by my entreaties,” pleaded
Priam, “think of your own father, Peleus, an old man like myself sitting alone and desolate in
his palace among the Myrmidons, bereft of the care of you, his only son.”
 Touched by Priam’s plea because he suddenly remembered his old father in far off
Phythia, Achilles wept with Priam. The scene is unforgettable not only because of the
emotion of sympathy and compassion thus evoked but also because of the truth which is
pointed out unobtrusively. War is not only cruel but senseless. How can one compare the
victory gained at war with the cost of human lives and human suffering? General Wolfe, the
English commander in the war with France, standing on the plains of Quebec surveying the
English victory over the enemy could only say, “Next to a battle lost, the saddest sight on
earth is a battle won.” Centuries before, a blind poet called Homer had said it, too. Through
the old king weeping for the most heroic of his sons and young Achilles who was fated to die
later on the plains of Troy. Homer pointed out hate wastefulness, the cruelty and the futility
of war.

Exalted and noble though it be, intellectual element is not the most valuable in
literature. It is the emotional response. Upon it depends greatly the humanizing function of
literature. To encourage students to think vigorously and clearly, may not-be easy. But to
make them feel the right emotion is more difficult, for it involves giving a strong motivation
not just to feel but to feel properly, with sensitiveness and delicacy. Emotion or feeling is
spontaneous and sometimes instantaneous. It is not at once accompanied by thought or
reflection. It springs forth untrammelled and free. Education the emotion sounds impractical,
unnecessary. Why not allow feelings free rein and direction? Because there is danger that
unguided emotion may become disorderly and wilful. Emotion needs guidance and direction
though not in a rigid, stultifying manner. And here is where literature acts as a catalyst.
Through literature, the emotion can call into play the feelings and impulses that enoble,
strengthen and purify – sometimes that call forth the idealism without which living could be
notably barren and uninspiring. The opportunities for educating the emotion abound in daily
life and are mirrored in literature, How to educate the emotions is the problem.

Man’s capacity for feeling and feeling nobly can be evoked by literature at its best.
Fiction and drama, poetry and essay exercise the privilege of calling into lay the worthy
emotion which sometimes lie dormant in ordinary beings. Life may not supply an individual
with the proper stimuli to release the vague yearnings for beauty and nobility of spirit which
cannot find the proper expression or outlet. But lines of poetry, situations on fiction, dialogue
in a drama may echo a person’s inner yearnings and vague dreams. They spur an emotional
response which but for the evocative power of literature could not be expressed or realized.
Someone has claimed that we are all poets when we read a poem well. Somebody else
declared that he could always tell when he comes across great poetry. Its impact hits him
between the eyes and he knows that he will never be the same again. Man’s emotion can rise
to the level of true poetry through the rapport established with the poet’s outpouring of
emotions.

But what other emotional effects does literature produce on the reader to humanize
him? One is the enrichment and refinement of feelings. Raw basic emotions are transformed
into humanizing factors. One develops the tendency to feel the sentiments proper to man as
an emotional, but at the same time, an intelligent, moral being. He becomes aware of feeling
that elevate and purify the emotions. The sublimation of natural feelings heightens and
enriches his personality. His sympathies with truth and beauty are enlarged and extended
with the corresponding growth of tolerance, kindness, goodwill and geniality. He feels in
himself the stirring of emotions which are rightly human such as the love for the good, the
delicate, the beautiful and the noble. He feels awareness of and an admiration for the
elements of life that enhance his stature as a human being. He develops a corresponding
aversion towards the false, the cheap and the tawdry. His taste is elevated and refined.

The emotional power of literature thus enables man to exercise functions that might
otherwise remain dormant or fall into disuse and ultimately fade away. With the constant
emotional impact of literature, man continuously propels his feelings into channels that
humanize his personality. From the simplest lyric to the height of tragedy, literature exerts
this emotional power over man.

A very short story entitled “Later” illustrates the power to stir the emotions and
suggest simply but sharply a frequently overlooked truth. The central character is John, an
architect by profession. John’s life is dominated by one purpose: to succeed in his work so as
to provide for his wife and little daughter both whom he loved dearly.

Working in his study one afternoon, he was interrupted by the little girl, carrying a
book of fairy tales which she pleaded with him to read to her. Absorbed in the work he had to
finish, he fended her off by saying that he was very busy at the moment. When his daughter
insisted, he told her to run to her mother who would gladly read the story to her. The girl still
lingered and when, rather impatiently he urged her to look for mother, she said wistfully,
“Daddy, when you find time, will you read the story to me?” And when he nodded his assent,
saying briefly, “Later”, she said further, “Daddy, read in a loud voice so that wherever I
maybe, I can hear you.”

Soon he was absorbed with his work again. Suddenly, the silence was shattered by the
screeching of brakes and voices raised in piercing screams. John rushed from his study into
the street only to discover that a cargo truck, running at full speed, had hit the little girl who
had ventured into the street in pursuit of a ball.

The next day, John was again in his study. This time he was formally dressed as if in
preparation for going out. His wife came to the room and said quietly, “John, we have to
leave now. We shall be late for the funeral. “

But John made no motion to go. Holding the book of fairy tales in his hand, he read in
a loud voice that barely concealed anguish: “Once upon a time, there lived in the Black
Forest, a princess who was so beautiful that the birds of the air stopped singing and the beast
in the forest stopped to look at her...”

The story is neither profound in theme nor unusual in treatment, yet it succeeds I
conveying an insight along with its emotional appeal. How powerless we are to discern the
significance of a moment as it passes. We live in a world dominated by our preoccupations,
often spurred by love, yet repressing and ignoring the realities of everyday existence.

In poetry, we frequently come across outbursts of song and lyricism that enlighten as
they give pleasure. Take Sara Teasdale’s well-known “I Shall Not Care”.

When I am dead and over me bright April

Shakes down her rain-drenched hair,
Though you should lean above me, brokenhearted,
I shall not care.
 I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful,
When the rain bends down the bough,
And I shall be more silent and color-hearted
Than you are now.8

The poem is brief, simple, and unpretentious but like all true lyrics, it is melodious
and truly inspired. Imagery, derived from the familiar moods of nature, combine with the lilt
of the verses to evoke a thrill of pleasure. For comparison, there is Robert Frost’s “The Dust
of Snow”.

The way a crow

Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has caused my heart

A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.9

Equally simple in structure, this poem has a more serious theme. The speaker finds in
an ordinary experience the necessary stimulus to break a prevailing mood of despondency.
Almost artlessly, Frost summons his mastery of poetic technique to engrave in our minds a
meaningful experience. The images of snow, of crow and of hemlock and their association
with barrenness, evil, poison and death heightens the mood of pessimism bordering on quiet
despair. Suddenly, the poet’s mind registers the change of meaning which has miraculously
taken place. The slight, ordinary incident becomes the bridge leading to peace of mind to
awareness of truth to an affirmation of life. The reader grasps the meaning of Frost’s
statement that “A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”
Other poems, however are equally capable of blending emotion and thought, yet are
far more complex in theme and structure. Gerald manly Hopkin’s “Spelt From Sibyl’s Leaves”
is an apt illustration.

Spelt From Sibyl’s Leaves

Earnest, earthless, equal, attuneable, vaulty,

voluminous...stupendous
Evening strains to be time’s vast, womb-of-all,
home-of-all, hearse-of-all-night.
Her fond yellow hornlight wound to the west, her
wild hollow hoarlight hung to the height
Waste; her earliest stars, earl-stars, stars principal,
overbend us,
Fire-featuring. For earth her being has
unbound, her dapple is at an end,
Astray or aswarm, all throughter, in throngs; self
in self steeped and pashed – quite
Disremembering, disremembering all now. Heart,
you round me right
8
 With: Our evening is over us; our night whelms,
whelms, and will end us.
Only the beak-leaved boughs dragonish damask
the tool-smooth bleak light ;black,
Ever so black on it, Our tale, O our oracle! Let
life, waned, a let life wind.
Off her once skeined stained veined variety upon,
all on two spools; part, pen pack
Now her all in two flocks, two folds – black, white;
right, wrong; reckon but, reck, but, mind
But these two; ware of a world where but these
two tell, each off the other; of a rack
Where, self-writing, self-strung, sheathe-and shelter-
less, thoughts against thoughts in groans
grind 10

The poem is conceded to be one of the most difficult yet one of the most remarkable
of Hopkins’ lyrics. It begins with the striking description of twilight, with the end of day
straining to lapse into night; the contrast between the brightness of day when nature is most
radiant and the darkness descending upon the earth. Then all brightness and loveliness are
swalloed in gloom and oblivion, leaving the once bright world bereft and empty. The poet
perceives in the swift descent of evening, a symbol of life moving to an end, bringing with it
not only sorrow but also bewilderment.

The poet says, “Heart”

You round me right
With: Our evening is over us; our night whelms,
Whelms, and will end us.”

The poet’s confusion, mounting to anguish, arises not only from the dichotomy of good
and evil but also the manner in which his convictions now waver. Hence he perceives that “his
absolutes waver too, and change places”, leaving him disturebed and restless. Poetry like
that of Hopkins’ is brilliantly original in concept, texture and style. Its appeal is many-sided,
intellectual and spiritual. It is surcharged with a powerful religious fervor that runs through
his poetry. The impression of difficulty and even of obscurity conveyed by Hopkins’ poetry
can be overcome with the effort to understand him. One way was suggested by the poet
himself, when in a letter to his literary executor and friend, he said, “Take breath and read it
(his poetry) with the ears, as I always wish to be read, and my verse becomes all right.”11

In humanizing man’s education, literature blends the intellectual and emotional

elements. Modern literature tends to infuse the moral and ethical concern with subtlety and
finesse. This technique is prompted by the modern aversion to have literature preach and
moralize. Such is regarded not only as Puritannical but un-called for in art. Whatever diverse
opinions have emerged, the consensus is that in order to make man as thoroughly human as
possible, literature should include ethical and moral aspects as inescapable and vital. The
choice of subject and the technique employed to objectify an experience obviously involve a
decision that has moral connotations. In the demand for freedom in the choice of materials,
some avant garde writers claim complete freedom. They assert that no subject is amoral in
itself. Though open to controversy, the judgment of morality and immorality in literature is
mostly based on the writer’s vision of life. This vision is colored by the writer’s philosophy of
life, his attitude towards experience as reflected in his choice of subject, theme and purpose.
If his purpose is morally sound, his technique and style will be governed and guided by this
purpose. The integration of vision and experience is directed by his moral sense, by his desire
not to exaggerate or distort reality, but to be truthful and rational. A worthy, possible a
noble purpose, an accurate understanding of life and human nature, a sense of proportion, of
the right degree of emphasis, the proper handling of language for expression and
communication—these are factors which affect the morality of literature.

Fiction, for example, in it portrayal of situations and characters, often indicates the
writer’s moral ideas in his evaluation of decisions and actions. Moral principles or the lack of
them motive the character’s conduct. Often he is involved in critical situations requiring an
important decision. His choice depends, not on the impulse of the moment, but on his past
experiences in living dominated by the sense of right and wrong. Some writers of drama and
fiction cleverly but wrongly side-step the issue or present a sophisticated if basically immoral
solution.

Take a familiar situation in contemporary fiction. A man of humble birth endowed

with unusual intelligence was determined to raise himself above his station. Poverty could be
a powerful hindrance to his ambition, but his determination secured for him a scholarship
which led to higher education and a college degree. He married a girl whom he had known all
his life. She proved a great help in furthering his career and ambition. She struggled
indefatigably in earning a salary. She devoted her time for his welfare, in removing all
obstacles and irritations that might hinder his progress. Inevitably her single-minded devotion
to his cause made her neglect herself, —her looks, her clothes, her general appearance and
even worse, the expansion and cultivation of her mind. In the husband’s progress, made
attainable by the wife’s sacrifice, her self-effacement and her devotion, he attained his
ambition. Sadly, he realized how far behind him his wife had lagged on the way. In repeated
surges of annoyance and disappointment, he would attend social gatherings without her. He
would frequently meet in social functions, an attractive woman, self-assured, charming and
intelligent whom he would guiltily compare to his wife. Readers of fiction can foresee the
complication. The husband and the woman fall in love. But what about his wife? This is the
point in which the novelist uses his own logic. Is not the happiness of the greatest number
the most desirable and logical? In the situation just sketched, three persons are miserable;
the husband because he no longer cares for his wife, the other woman because she does not
wish to go with a married man, the wife because she realizes how far the husband moved
away from her. The novelist’s solution is to secure happiness for the husband and the woman
he now cares for. This way, only one person, the wife, will be unhappy. This, of course, is
an extreme simplification of a fictional problem. What makes the ending really harmful,
however, is the cleverness with which the writer manipulates the plot. He makes the solution
appear inevitable and somehow justifiable.
 And this precisely is a significant point in considering the moral values of literature.
Immoral characters and situations are not barred from literature. If it is to hold a mirror to
life, literature must consider both the edifying and the shocking, for life abounds in them. It
is the handling of the plot and characterization, of the atmosphere and spirit predominant in
the narrative which influence correctly or adversely, the moral interpretation involved. A
writer’s aim in writing, implicitly or explicitly, colors and shapes his work. With the honest
purpose of portraying life fairly and objectively, his writing will be honest, accurate and
unbiased. The prudent assessment of experience will give to the portrayal of evil the proper
proportion. To become engrossed in the evil aspects can easily upset the principle of
proportion, for then evil will occupy an area of the work greater than that demanded by
symmetry and balance. The Naturalists, for example, tend to picture life as gloomy and
sordid. If only indirectly, truth demands the indication of goodness and virtue as aspects of
real life. Language is another significant factor in the moral values of literature. Of course,
it is conceded that language should remain close to the ideas, feelings and actions expressed.
In dialogue, however, one has to preserve the manner of speech according to the
temperament, education and background of the speaker. It is less harmful to use strong and
vulgar speech, if so required, rather than clothe language in vague but suggestive
equivocations and euphemisms or to imply and thereby provoke worse or more lurid
meanings. A clear and unmalicious, honest use of the necessary words may produce a
momentary shock, but not a lasting, perverse effect.

Again, one has to evaluate not only the intentions and responsibility of the writer.
The character, background, temperament and education of the reader are equally significant.
Objectively one may judge a literary work to be decent, truthful and honest. But some
readers are over scrupulous or else endowed with a fervid imagination that makes them see
what is not there, what the author has no intention of indicating or suggesting. On the other
hand, it cannot be insisted too emphatically that certain books are either carelessly written
or deliberately intended to convey a twisted and distorted vision of life. Take some best
sellers by way of example. Even adolescents read them avidly. Yet many of them contain
materials of questionable morality which are not even necessarily connected with the plots or
themes. It may be questioned whether the unsavory scenes and details have been added for
sensationalism or for worst purposes. One thing is certain: the superimposition and addition
of such details often violate one principle of art—artistic unity. Granted that the present age
is more tolerant than the past in the portrayal of human failings and even aberrations in
literature, some actions and motivations remain objectionable if presented for the wrong
motive and in the wrong spirit, technique and style.

Immeasurably different and superior is Dante’s poetic vision, a vision not only lofty
and noble but inclusive of varied aspects of life and human nature. Theologian, philosopher,
statesman and poet that he was, Dante reflects in “The Divine Comedy” the whole spectrum
of human existence. His concentration, however, is in the spiritual and moral experiences of
man. His masterpiece, however, exemplifies the existence in one work of aesthetic,
intellectual and ethical values thereby proving the extent and variety of this author’s
learning, his interests and his experiences. His poetry touches sublimity which the ancient
critic Longinus believed to be attainable only by a poet with an exalted vision, an artist
capable of great concepts because he has greatness of soul. For this ancient critic indeed, a
lofty thought is “the echo of a great soul.”

Nowhere in “The Divine Comedy” does Dante reach the sublime so pointedly as in the
moment of the beatific vision. Scenes in Hell are most dramatic, some characters truly
unforgettable, but those of Heaven are sublime in the exaltation of mind and spirit. Having
reached the end of his journey, the access to the spaceless, St. Bernard who addressed the
Blessed Virgin as the glory of the human race, she who alone among mortals was without sin
and whom he now implored to help Dante, this mortal who had traversed the unknown, and
faced insurmountable barriers finally to come within reach of his cherished dream. St,
Bernard thus prayed:

“VIRGIN MOTHER, daughter of thy son, lowly and uplifted

more than any creature, fixed goal of the eternal counsel,
thou art she who didst human nature so enoble that its own
Maker scorned not to becomes its making.
In thy womb was lit again the love under whose warmth in the
eternal peace this flower hath thus unfolded.
Here art thou unto us the meridian torch of love and there
below with mortals art a living spring of home.
Lady, thou art so great and hast such worth, that if there be
who would have grace yet betaketh not himself to thee, his longing
seeketh to fly without wings.
Thy kindliness not only succoureth who so requesteth, but doth
oftentimes freely forerun request.
In thee is tenderness, in thee is pity, in thee munificence, in
thee united whatever is created being is of excellence.
Now he who from the deepest pool of the universe even to
here hath seen the spirit lives one after one
imploreth thee, of grace, for so much power as to be able to
uplift his eyes more high towards final bliss;
and I, who never burned for my own vision more than I do for
his, proffer thee all my prayers and pray they be not scant
that thou do scatter for him every cloud of his morality with
prayers of thine, so that the joy supreme may be unfolded to him.
And further do I pray thee, Queen who canst all that thou
wilt, that thou keep sound for him, after so great a vision, his
affections.
Let thy protection vanquish human ferments; see Beatrice
with how many Saints, for my prayers folding hands.” 12

At a sign from St. Bernard, Dante raised his eyes, those eyes now purged of all human
imperfections by the vision presented in the regions of heaven that he had traversed. In a
flash, the only mortal so favoured by divine grace, Dante beheld the beatific vision, which he
rendered thus:

“Within its depths I saw ingathered, bound by love in one volume, the scattered leaves
of all the universe; substance and accidents and their relations, as though together fused,
after such fashion that what I tell of is one simple flame.”13

Intensely touching is his conviction that though he lived a hundred years, nothing
could efface the radiance of his vision. Like a fragile bark struggling in a stormy sea, his craft
as a poet failed to translate into words this transcendental experience. He could only keep,
locked in his heart, the ineffable sweetness of that supreme revelation, till sometime in the
future, upon his soul’s leaving its moral confines, he might again grasp its remembered
sweetness. Artist that he is, Dante leaves the reader at the peak of his vision, the
culmination of his arduous search for beauty and truth. John Ciardi, the inspired translator of
“The Divine Comedy”, captured the beauty of the last lines,

“But mine were not the wings for such a flight,

Yet, as I wished, the truth I wished for came
Cleaving my mind in a great flash of light.

Here my powers rest from their high fantasy,

But already I could feel my being turned—
Instinct and intellect balanced equally

As in a wheel whose motion nothing jars

By the love that moves the Sun and the other stars.” 14

Humanizing education through literature is a never-ending process. Whether we are

aware of this fact or not, with or without conscious intent, we grow in learning and, it is
fervently hoped also in wisdom. It is only in the greatest of writers—Dante, Shakespeare,
Kalidasa, Goethe, Cervantes, Tagore—that we find stimulus for intellectual and spiritual
excellence. In its richness and variety, literature encompasses the most exalted as well as
the simplest, most unpretentious achievement. As life is richly varied and multi-faceted, so
are the dimensions of literature. In it, every need, every taste can find delight, satisfaction,
assurance, consolation. The classics by which is meant not only the Greek and Roman
masterpieces, but also the best which has ever been written or created, such as the Bible,
undoubtedly constitute the richest source. But works of lesser magnitude and impressiveness
can nevertheless bring wisdom and delight. Not every mood, every moment is attuned to the
loftiest expressions of life in literature. At certain instances we are soothed or consoled or
gladdened by snatches of poetry or a simple story or sparkling dialogue which echoes some of
our dreams and aspirations. The catholicity or universality of this art enables it to give
something to readers of diverse tastes and backgrounds.
 Some writers possess the versatility to create with equal felicity and finesse, simple as
well as impressive works. William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and one of the most inspired of his
generation, wrote short lyrics in the early period of his poetic career. In their own fashion,
these are as delightful and inspiring as the most polished of his later poetry which combine
the wisdom of experienced with a sustained lyricism.

At whatever period or circumstance an educated man may find himself, he draws

sustenance and power from literature. It humanizes as it educates him in the art of living.
At his maturity such a person takes a backward look at his past and realizes that his readings
and studies in literature have broadened and revitalized his life. Perhaps it has given a
deeper meaning to his existence. Instead of a bleak look at the uncertainties of the future,
he might even discover a stronger impulse to enrich and cherish his humanity.

To recapitulate. Man’s humanity is a precious possession. His God given endowments

are enhanced by the realization of his commitment to cherish and never to forsake his
humanness. Literature helps man to nourish his humanity specially in the process of being
educated to the best of his capacities. Literature, by stimulating man’s intellect, deepens his
insight, develops subtlety and profundity of thought, exercises his imagination towards the
constructive and the creative. Through an appeal to the emotions, literature educates and
refines man’s feeling and sensibilities, strengthens his inclination towards kindness, tolerance
and sympathy. Literature also elevates man’s standard of moral values and sets him on the
path of virtue which is the goal of true knowledge. Education through the power of literature
succeeds in evoking and nourishing whatever is finest and noblest in our human nature.

NOTES

1. Janaro, Richard P. and Thelma C. Altshuler: The Art of Being Human; Harper and Row,
New York, 1984, p. 9.
2. Toynbee, Arnold: quoted by Janaro R. And T. Altshuler, op. cit., p.4.
3. Janaro, Richard P. and Thelma Altshuler: op. cit., p.5.
4. Loc. cit.
5. Loc. cit.
6. Coleridge, Samuel T.: Chapter XII, “Biographia Literaria”, in The Great Critics, edited
by Smith, J.H. and Edd Winfield Parks, W.W. Norton and Co., 1951, p. 525.
7. De Quincey, Thomas: “The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power”
reprinted in Dominant Types in British and American Literature, Macmillan and Co.,
1949, pp. 81-84.
8. Teasdale, Sara: “I Shall Not Care”, Collected Poems, 1937.
9. Frost, Robert: “The Dust of Snow”, Robert Frost’s Poems, Original Pocket Books
Edition, 1946, p. 240.
10.Hopkins, Gerald Manley: “Spelt From Sibyl’s Leaves”, reprinted in New Bearings in
English Poetry, by F.R. Leavis, p. 157.
11. ______________ “Letters to Robert Bridges”
12.Dante: The Divine Comedy, Canto XXXIII, Carlyle-Wicksteed Translation, The Modern
Library, New York, pp. 603-604.
13. Loc. cit.
14. Ciardi, John: Trans. “Dante’s Paradiso”, The New American Library, 1961, p. 365.