The Educated Imagination, by Northrop Frye, Bird by Bird,...

Can you imagine a world where literature did not exist? It’s very hard, nearly impossible. Literature plays a major role in shaping society. Literature is a word used to describe written or spoken material. Literature educates, informs, entertains and influences the reader or listener in a myriad of profound ways. Broadly speaking, â€Å"literature† is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination. Writers can change one’s beliefs, thoughts, actions, indeed their entire lives. In Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird and Plato’s The Republic, the writers use literature to utter the importance†¦show more content†¦He further says that literature especially poetry is â€Å"more simply sensuous and passionate.† In order to make this connection, Frye uses a series of comparisons s uch as objective versus subjective words, intellect opposed to emotion, and arts in contrast to science. Frye also describes what he considers to be three levels of the mind and their relationships to language. He titles the first level the objective level. On this level one uses nouns and adjectives to give names and describe things one sees around himself. The second level referred to as the practical level uses verbs and action words. For instance, man is concerned with changing the environment to fit his needs, therefore he requires these practical verbs and adjectives to express what he wants to do. The last level is basically a vision or model in one’s mind of what he wants to construct. This highest level is involved with imagination, this is the realm of literature. Frye makes the fascinating observation that science continuously