The Power of the Written Word
Project Type
Event
Location
Miniaci Performing Arts Center
Start Date
8-4-2005 12:00 AM
End Date
8-4-2005 12:00 AM
The Power of the Written Word
Miniaci Performing Arts Center
Two great American authors, John Steinbeck and Herman Melville, both wrote pieces regarding those with defective mental faculties. In addition, these characters were giants, strong and hard working. This compensation was to show society’s treatment of these people. We often judge based on actions alone and not on person. These two giants committed crimes, but not of their own true doing. Either manipulation or the sheer failure to know one’s own strength caused each to falter, committing the greatest crime: murder. How to treat these criminals was the central question of each tale. In Of Mice and Men you pity poor Lennie, but in Billy Budd you pity the captain who knows that Billy is innocent, but punishes him anyway. Literature is the largest mirror on society, teaching lessons by immortalizing the actions of society in the written word so that others may learn from it.
