Literal Interpretation In Literature :: essays research papers

Literal Interpretation in LiteratureLiterature is meant to put up a perspective on life. Phrases or refersfound in works of literature may be used to help express ones own thoughts, to separate a particular situation, or even to apply the circumstances in anotherpiece of literature. Readers often utilize literary quotes for this purpose,yet not any reader will interpret a given quote the same way. One example ofa phrase which can have many dissimilar meanings is the biblical quote "The sinsof the father visit upon the children."A literal interpretation of the above quote would mean the wrongdoings ofthe father somehow affects the children. If the "bad habits" of one coevalsarent corrected, they will be passed on to the generations that follow. Thatcan result in generations of drug abusers, spouse abusers, or just rude people.One example of this interpretation tycoon be if a father is a drug abuser, thechildren will learn from him, and use drugs also. Another ex ample is if thefather is abusive, the children will think that is how problems are solved.They, in turn, will be abusive to their families, and will start a vicious cyclefor generations to come. These examples definitely show how this biblical quotemay be understand literally."The sins of the father visit upon the children" has a deeper meaning thanthat described above. For example, "father" could be changed to "parent," andthese "parents" could mean "generations" that precede the children. A situationthat would represent that would be war or pollution. A second example whichillustrates how this quote may be interpreted on a more global level ispreceding generations could affect the children by means of racialdiscrimination that has been passed down from long ago. This may have startedwith slavery and segregation. Then, as generations follow, racialdiscrimination is passed. All of these situations prove that one quote may havemany different m eanings.A third way to interpret this biblical quote is to change the word "sins"to a more customary or positive term such as "behaviors", "expectations","experiences", or even "good deeds". By making such a substitution, the quotetakes on a new meaning. This makes the biblical quote good or bad depending onthe "behaviors". For example, the father may behave in a polite way, whichwould tutor the children behaviors that make many friends, get job offers, andbasically get the most out of life. On the other hand, the fathers behaviorscould be rude, and the children would learn to be mean, which would cause themto ache their jobs and friends.