How Does Literature Affect a Person's Understanding of a Culture?

Reading is the gate-way to learning. If we didn’t read we wouldn’t know as much as we do today. We gain more knowledge by reading and absorbing the text, whether the text is a fiction or nonfiction. By reading and learning about others we can improve our own mindset and become more open-minded about the world we live in.

I believe the most important thing we should learn about is other people. Why everyone is different and how where they live and what they find important influences this. Culture is important. It influences everyone’s life and makes us who we are. By reading and exploring texts we are able to understand more about different cultures which gives us a greater intercultural understanding.

Text isn’t solely responsible for us learning about culture however, we are able to learn from our understanding of our own origins and use it to inform us about others. The similarities we have we different countries, religions and cultures help us to understand why in their circumstance, they would do things differently to us. You can understand why people do things differently and this helps us to improve on our intercultural understanding.

Back to literature! Reading a variety of texts from all over the world helps us to make connections in our life to that of others. The connection of culture helps the reader become more understanding about the problems other cultures face. In Persepolis, Marji describes how the war changed her life and the community around her and

gave her country a stronger connection to their religion. Being from a place which I have experienced no major conflict, within my lifetime, I can now see how conflict has affected their connection to religion and I believe if we were in the same situation our culture will shift which would maybe result in religion being more important. In past, during a war my country had, we turned to religion which is exactly what had happened in Iran.

Persepolis has helped readers understand how the culture within one person's life can be similar to that of another if you look close enough. The fact they relied on religion shows us how they shape their lives and how their culture is a strong symbol of religion. By learning through reading, we can get an understanding of the elements that make a countries culture and make connections to our own and to others'.

Consider your culture. What main elements make up your culture and can you draw similarities and difference from your culture and another culture? I'm positive this will help you gain more intercultural understanding and help you to be more open-minded to the people around you.