Sad as it may be, a lot of young people nowadays find it hard to cope with the school literature curriculum and keep wondering what good it does to scrupulously examine the lives of fictional characters who are just a figment of somebody’s imagination. So, is it actually a waste of time or there is more to it, than it seems?
Although a book is actually created by the writer’s imagination, the personages are endowed with the character traits and behavior models of real people. Therefore, literature is a great source of psychological information and introduces us to the most typical human problems. Even if you are reading a work of the seventeenth century, you will be able to draw parallels with your life and environment. Reading makes you feel as if you were in the characters’ shoes and sympathize with them or feel indignant with their actions. Moreover, it teaches you about the world, since within a few seconds you are able to immerse into a different historic period or transfer to the other part of the world. It helps you learn new things about the world we are living in, but at the same time it clearly shows how similar we all are despite the difference in the location, race and age. When you read a book and identify yourself with the character, you actually identify yourself with thousands of other people around the globe, who share your feelings.
To sum up, literature is meant to help us learn a lot about the people and the surrounding world and on the basis of this knowledge to form our outlook on the world. It teaches us to feel and use our imagination, which is by all means important in your formation as a personality.