A Kinder Reader Essay -- Essays Papers

A Kinder Reader When one thinks of stories that improve us as human beings, Aesops Fables comes to mind, not the dark, dank, diacetylmorphinelaced world of Mohsin Hamids Moth Smoke. But, reading is like fashion, and one mans cherished plaid pants are another mans horror. Not tout ensemble fiction can directly dole out moral advice, such(prenominal) as Jane Austens warnings about the dangers of hasty sagacity in soak and Prejudice, but almost all fiction can proffer tales that at the very least expand our range of vision. Moth Smoke brings us, its intended American audience, into the foreign world of modern day Pakistan. The protagonist, Daru, is recently unemployed, in rage with his best friends wife and cultivating a small heroin addiction. Hamid puts the proofreaders front and center of this foreign world by making them the adjudicate of Daru. To step out of your surroundings, even if only for 245 pages, changes you, puzzle outs you unable to step indorse into the exac t mold of a former self you left behind. Your b outranks bear shifted, been expanded, even if only by a fraction. Terry Eagleton brings these ideas to light in his book, Literary Theory, when he extrapolates on what it means to become a let out persona transformation in which, liberal humanists would argue, literature plays a part.1 At first glance Moth Smoke appears to be a newfangled left out of the running for this transformative seal of approval. How can a reader be morally transformed by a story that does not teach one how to love thy neighbor but rather the fine details of how to roll a joint while driving? But, afterwards only a few pages Moth Smoke becomes a crash black market in moral complexity, throwing readers headfirst into uncomfortable situations and then forcing them to make a... ...y sympathetic. So the box is wide. The crime is violent and despicable the needless putting to death of a boy. So the box is long. And the defense invokes a grand conspira cy, corruption, which is specially resonant these days. So the box is tall (38). Professor Superbs dimensions of the box serve as a tangible example of the judgment the reader must make. In each direction, on every axis vertebra of the box is a different, but equally valid, moral decision to be made. Transformative literature such as Moth Smoke forces its readers to expand their empathy in order to make such decisions with clarity and conviction.Notes1. Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory (Minneapolis University of atomic number 25 Press, 1983).2. All references in the text are to Mohsin Hamid, Moth Smoke (New York Picador USA, 2000).3. Eagleton, 210.4. Eagleton, 208.5. Eagleton, 208.