One of the most valuable aspects
of a book, or any literature, is the insight offered about the views of the
author and the surrounding society and times. The way in which certain ideas
are presented in different stories can be very telling about the attitude of
the author, or maybe in describing a message he is trying to convey. This is
perhaps the most important thing to walk away with after having experienced a
piece of literature. It is sometimes difficult to find the underlying theme of a
story, but it is imperative in order to find some common thread among several
pieces of literature. The presentations of these common themes are key in
making comparisons or discovering contrasts between pieces of literature that
at first appear to be dissimilar and unrelated, such as “Things Fall Apart”,
“Cry, the Beloved Country”, and “A Tale of Two Cities”.
