Abstract:

Utilizing the educational potential of literature in teaching English is an effective method of language instruction. While the primary goal of such lessons is improving the students’ language skills, teachers are granted an oppor-tunity to engage students in earnest discussions of the chosen literary composition. The secondary, yet not unim-portant, goal of language lessons thus forms for purposes of preparing young malleable minds for the perils of the World’s pervasive ambiguity. Attaining critical thinking skills is the process of gradually learning how to discern the veracity of various factoids, individual stories, collective events and the deliberations of separate minds. Crit-ical thinking translates to a decision on the shape of individual truth and the consequences that arise as a result. Literature’s nature allows for multiple interpretations of a singular idea, emotion, consideration or action. The notion that reality is formed in individual minds is a central tenet in various schools of thought. Applying to that belief, reality and our perception of it is shaped by the lens through which we view it. Therefore, thorough and honest investigation of the written word may lead to different realizations of the world. Multiple interpretations gestate when thinkers apply their experiences and ideology on the same thread of words found in the pages of a book of poems or stories in prose. When confronted with a literary artwork, students must form judgments about the author’s intent, the overall tone of the story, the characters’ motivations and the values they express. The journey undertaken toward the truth will vary depending on the truth-seeker. The same story will provoke different opinions in most cases. The students’ individual truths will clash to a minor or major degree depending on the compatibility of their experiences. The miserable Valjean, for instance, steals a loaf of bread and forces exclamations of disgust from certain readers due to the criminality of his ways. The majority, however, consider him a hero whose morality collides with the faceless laws void of humanity. Discovering the truth in words erected for progeny is a deeply individual exercise. The beauty and soundness of the reveled truth will depend on the conviction of the seeker. Well-nurtured truths stand tall in defiance against the ambiguity that surrounds us.

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