Essays *collection*

[~ A7lA DoNiA ~]

Is reading fiction a waste of time? Why or why not? Explain your answer using specific reasons and

examples to support your position.



Remember the last book that captured your imagination, that transported you to another place and time?

Remember a book that made you fall in love with its characters, made you feel their pain and joy?

Remember a story that taught you an important lesson, that helped you better understand others, make

sense of the human condition? If so, then you can understand why the question, "Is reading fiction a waste

of time?" is such a silly question.

Fiction, unlike a user manual, a magazine article, or newspaper editorial, probably won't offer you any

practical knowledge that you can put to immediate use. It won't inform you of current events or give you

advice on how to cultivate a better garden. It probably won't help you decide which candidate to vote for or

which product to buy. But that certainly doesn't mean it's useless or impractical. Indeed, fiction serves

three important functions for human beings: It helps us be more compassionate to others, it helps us better

understand ourselves, and it cultivates our imaginations. It can also teach us about history, psychology,

even biology and other sciences.

Compassion for others is rooted in understanding and acceptance, and a good story brings us into the

inner world of its characters so that we can understand them. In Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, for

example, Morrison peels away the layers of her characters' histories piece by piece like an onion until we

see into their core and understand what drives them. They may still do awful things to each other, but she

shows us why they do the things that they do, and we learn that we shouldn't judge others until we

understand their pasts. Their stories are sad and painful, and we learn to love even the outcast Pecola. In

fact, we learn that those outcasts are the ones who need our love the most.

Many stories and novels also help us better understand ourselves. Joseph Conrad's dark and powerful

novel Heart of Darkness helps us see that all of us have a dark side, and that we need to acknowledge

this dark side in order to control it. It makes us question just how civilized we are and indeed what it means

to be civilized in the first place.

Good fiction also cultivates our imagination, which is more important to us than some might think. Without

imagination, we live a sad, empty life. Imagination is central to our emotional health and is a key factor in

our level of intelligence. Facts are one thing; but facts can be of no real use unless coupled with

imagination. Fiction can help us by keeping our imagination fresh and active. In a story like Franz Kafka's

"Metamorphosis," for example, we are asked to imagine that Gregor, the main character, wakes up one

morning and has turned into a giant bug. Crazy? Perhaps. But once we accept this premise and imagine

Gregor as a five-foot long cockroach, we can feel his family's horror and imagine his agony as he finds

himself trapped in his room and abandoned by those he loves.

Is reading fiction a waste of time? That's like asking if laughing is a waste of time. We don't need fiction to

survive, but we do need it to be kinder, more understanding, and more creative human beings.