They’re called classics for a reason. They have withstood the test of time and made history in the process. Classic literature often refers to a whole other perspective. As opposed to the world that we live in now, where viewpoints and perspectives are a lot more open-minded, classic literature was based on the unthinkable and referenced a society in which things like basic human rights were a luxury, which is why they forced us to dive deep into the darkest side of humanity and confront who we are with it and without it.
Classic literature also reveals our dark history and possibly dark present in a way that whitewashed history books do not. This can be seen in books like The Scarlett Letter, which reveals the way a women’s sexuality was seen back then, or To Kill a Mockingbird, which holds the unfortunately still-present Black men struggle with the biased nature of the law. It also plays with the meaning of morality in a way that only Oscar Wilde and Ursule Le Guin know how to do. All of this is also why so many classic books are being banned in schools.
While books now do entertain us, they have lost their ability to break our minds with metaphors that we need to decipher or controversial topics that insert in us deep analytical skills. There is only a limited number of books now that explore a world in which our subconscious resides, a world with characters that represent a part of our mind we refuse to acknowledge or even a world of infinite philosophies.
Classic books are often hosts of life-changing sentences that need to be deciphered and analyzed in order to reach a complete understanding. This type of literature is scarce nowadays, as well as the metaphoric plots that often accompany such controversial sentences.
These are some classic books that changed my life, challenged my way of thinking, and destroyed my definition of humanity:
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
This book explores the confines of an oppressive mental hospital and introduces characters who could very well live a normal life — a stuttering man, a man resisting homosexual urges, etc. — yet refuse to due to the fact that the evilly portrayed Nurse Ratched has fooled them into thinking that their sickness is incurable. The narrator of this story is a paranoid schizophrenic who pretends to be deaf and mute and also befriends the rebellious hero of the story, McMurphy, who tries to take over the mental hospital and, against all odds, convince the patients around him to rid themselves of the patient-mentality.
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
In this somewhat Gothic fiction book, Oscar Wilde creates a main character that goes against the law of nature and society’s rules as well. Dorian Gray is an immoral character due to his selling of his soul in exchange for eternal youth and beauty. This book’s ending reveals the main character’s ugly nature and regret.
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The main character of this story is a resident of a culturally oppressed society where citizens are hidden from a life where books exist, and firemen don’t put out fires; they burn books. Guy Montag is one of these book-burning firemen at the beginning of the book, and we see his progress in turning from a book-burning fireman to a book-reading rebel. The purpose of the book-burning is to eliminate all sources of complexity, contradiction, and confusion. Yet Montag figures out that a life without that is a life of oppression.
- The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
In this short story, Ursula Le Guin portrays a city in which everything is perfect. She leads us through the perfect utopia, where everybody is happy. Which, as we know, is humanely impossible, and then introduces us to the cause of that happiness. The prosperous city depends on the perpetual misery of a single child. This short story challenges the meaning of happiness and deems it as unreachable while also revealing the lengths human beings will go to achieve this impossible state of happiness.
