Characteristics of Good Literature

Characteristics of Good Literature

Throughout school, one will read many books, and form opinions on them. As a reader gets older, they may find their "type" of book, which they enjoy reading above all others. Readers often form their own, personalized definition of "good literature," even if this is done subconsciously. They may prefer books with characters with a tragic backstory, a story about forbidden love, or even one with all non-human characters. Overall, there is a criterion that most "good pieces of literature" fit into. One of the most noticeable things in a book is the author's attention to detail. Also, the protagonist is dynamic, changing throughout the book's entirety, usually showing improvements. Lastly, a good piece of literature contains multiple relatable characters, so that most readers can feel a connection with one or more of them.

When an author puts such care into the world that the book is set in, the reader notices. Little details, like "in the eastern sky there was a yellow patch like a rug laid for the feet of the coming sun," (Crane 15) really aid the reader in visualizing the camp setting that morning. The better the reader can visualize the scene playing out in the book, the more interested they will become. Also, if a book is set in a very few number of places, the reader can often get bored of that setting, and therefore lose interest. Once those few locations are described, there isn't much more an author can do regarding describing the scenery. For example, the majority of A Gathering Of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines took place at the Marshall Plantation, which was described to have a lot of pecan trees, a tin roof on the house, and an idly running tractor

(Gaines 55). Also there are weeds and bushes on the ditch bank, and beanpoles in the garden (57). If this were the only description given, this book could be declared a "not-so-good" piece of literature. However, as the book goes on, the plantation is described more, like how the road seems to be "no wider than a king-size bed sheet" because of all the weeds (59). In The Red Badge of Courage, the author, Stephen Crane, goes into great detail to describe the battle and the soldiers in it. When Jim, one of Henry's fellow soldiers, is brutally injured, he is described to have "hung babelike to the youth's arm" (Crane 58), which paints a vivid picture in the reader's mind. The descriptions of the injured soldiers are wildly explanatory throughout the novella's entirety, and this helps to make it a good piece of literature.

In the beginning of mostly any piece of literature, the main character has a problem, or is/behaves a certain way. This characteristic changes throughout the piece, making the character improve on themselves, either because of their doing, or others'. In the beginning of The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is an inexperienced, new recruit to the Union Army, and is eager to earn his "red badge of courage" from being in battle. As he observes the realities of battle, and his comrades falling, he realized how awful war really is, and how now everyone survives. He watches friends die while he can do nothing as his "tongue lay dead in the tomb of his mouth," and he just "desired to screech out of his grief" (62). Henry is a very dynamic character, and that helps to make The Red Badge of Courage a "good" piece of literature. On the other hand, in A Gathering of Old Men, the characters don't change much at all. If anything, the people on the plantation, along with Candy and Lou, grow closer together. When Mathu is about to be taken