Should Books Portray the World as It Is or as It Should Be?

Should books portray the world as it is or as it should be?

Books should be used to illuminate truths of the past. Books should tell the essence of human society in order to reflect the human nature and to make us recognize the need to change. Uncle Tom's Cabin and Anne's Diary describe reality of their society, which make readers of our time to understand the errors of history and not to repeat the same mistakes.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a book that proves that we can gain a lot from books which portray the world as it is by depicting the cruelty of slavery with reality. Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, severely castigates the slavery system by illustrating the life of a slave name Tom, who goes through extreme brutalities throughout the book. Tom is severely beaten by his master, Simon Legree, many times. Stowe vividly describes the inhumane treatment that Tom receives, such as being shackled, being beaten for what he did not do, and being banned from having his own opinion. He eventually dies at the end of the book due to excessive whipping. This book has helped people to realize how bloodthirsty the system of slavery was and to fix their stereotypes against the black people. Tom's avuncular image and his pitiful death triggered readers to fight against slavery and not to repeat such brutal system.

If Harriet Beecher Stowe contributed American society by creating a fiction that realistically represents the cruelty of slavery, Anne's Diary demonstrates the great power books can have when they depict the world as it is and criticizes its faults. Anne's Diary is a journal written by one of the Holocaust victims, Anne, who accused the cruelty of the Holocaust. When the German soldiers searched Jews to capture them and put them into concentration camps, Anne's family hid and lived without any encounter with the outside world for more than 2 years. Anne's family is eventually discovered by the soldiers; Anne ends her life in the concentration camp at the age of only sixteen. Anne's Diary serves to evoke the readers sympathy toward the Holocaust victims, who were brutally killed by Germans during World War II. Anne Frank recorded her fears and sadness of the horror of being captured by the Germans and sent to a concentration camp. Her realistic work not only has made readers realize how inhumane the Holocaust was but also has rooted in their minds that they should never repeat such mistake. Anne's Diary sheds lights on how such atrocious massacre inflict enormous pain to an individual, family, and the whole nation. Even though the Holocaust is a past history, Anne's Diary still arouses compassion from the readers who can vividly picture the horrors that all victims of Holocaust suffered.

Uncle Tom's Cabin and Anne's Diary reflect how books that reveal reality as it is can make