Aishwarya Week 9: Behind the Scenes of a Writer
People can use language to influence society. The leaders you see on television and the articles you see on certain websites have a way of grabbing people’s attention.
Many journalists on the news use language to share their side of events that occur in the world. Articles such as the New York Times or BBC News have paragraphs of words written by authors to dominate power in their knowledge. They use language to express their thoughts and share their opinions on the world’s issues.
In fact, authors have the power to manipulate readers’ minds for them to stay attentive throughout the book. In works of fiction, writers use various aspects to convey a story. They use dialogue to heighten the emotion among characters and use particular strategies to establish an effect on the words of their written works.
Generally, novels or books tell an engaging story through a particular structure. For instance, if you are trying to leave your house to go to the grocery store, you may choose a route that is not direct to reach your destination. You may choose to go to a different route so you can encounter your favorite stop at the candy store or find your friend. Similarly, the stack of pages in a book showcases a unique journey that does not take a direct route to the resolution. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby does not happen to find out Daisy betrayed him and dies at the beginning of the book. There is a journey to achieve that place in the book.
This journey is what takes readers' minds into a world of knowledge that is different from reality. Writers have the power to control the readers’ minds to stay invested in their books through language. In language, aspects such as emotions and structure make writers take control of the power of literature. But, the words of writers do not just have the power; readers can use the power of books to change their perception of the world. For instance, many books related to fantasy have a lesson at the end about being empathetic; people use the value of empathy to view the good in humanity.
In other words, writers do not just have the power to manipulate their readers but readers have the power to use books to manipulate their perception of the world.
Hi Aishwarya!
ReplyDeleteI truly enjoyed reading your blog on the power that authors have over their readers through how they keep their audience engaged in the story and how they push their audience to perceive the world in a certain way. I would like to begin by mentioning that I appreciate the conciseness of your introduction and conclusion paragraphs, as it allowed me to quickly understand both what I should have expected while reading your blog and what I should have taken away from your blog. Additionally, your use of examples to support the more complex ideas in your blog, such as how the stories of characters in a novel are not direct, made your blog easier to understand as a whole.
Additionally, I agree with the point you raised in your conclusion, which is that both writers and readers have power, each in their respective ways. The writer has an overt form of power in this relationship, as they can share their ideas with numerous people and potentially use their writing to either teach a lesson or convince their readers to act on a certain issue. Ultimately, however, it is up to the readers to determine how they will interpret the messages or story conveyed by the writer and whether or not they will use or act on the knowledge they acquired through reading. In this sense, writers and readers are only able to achieve power through their dependence on one another.
Hi Aishwarya,
ReplyDeleteI love your take on the power authors have along with news reporters and journalists. They have the power to share their ideas to essentially the whole world! They can write pretty much whatever they want on as many or as few pages they want. They can write about romance, horror, comedy, politics, etc. And they can twist actual events to play through however they choose. This allows them to show the readers their world view and possibly influence and manipulate their original views.
I also really like how you include the power readers themselves have as they can choose what books to read or what news to watch and they can choose to interpret by their own will. This is a very powerful tool as they can change their perception of the world with one news article.
One thing you didn't mention about the power readers hold is their power over the author. For example, with the Great Gatsby, the initial lack of reader interest greatly affected Fitzgerald's sales and his career overall.
Hi Aishwarya! I really enjoyed reading your blog. It is definitely true and impressive how authors manipulate readers' mind to achieve their purpose or keep them entertained. I liked how you brought up The Great Gatsby as an example, as another thing I took note of from that novel is when Fitzgerald created suspense and significance around the character of Jay Gatsby by making him not have an appearance until the third chapter. Authors definitely do have power over their readers to achieve whatever purpose they desire. If they want to persuade the reader or provide a message at the end, they can easily do so by their words. I also like how you pointed out that readers have the power to use books to manipulate their perception of the world. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your blog, good job!
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