Conclusion
The chapters of this book prove the extent to which literature can inform and illuminate elements of the modern world through a sociological lens. By delving inside the minds of literary characters, literature can provide first-hand accounts of inequality and illustrate the effects of this inequality on a character’s thoughts and identity. In particular, these chapters explore how literature depicts instances of alienation, inherited inequality, race, and gender and their ultimate effects on one’s sociological identity. Throughout the process of writing this book, students took a great interest in gauging literature as sociological commentary and finding the commonalities between their projects. The myriad of connections between these works proves both the universality and importance of today’s leading sociological controversies.
Lauren believes that Ifemelu’s story speaks to the power of literature to foster empathy and collective understanding — one of the most salient takeaways from SOC189. It also reflects the urgent need for more active anti-racism work in the United States, particularly on the interpersonal, micro-level scale. It is impossible for any of us to dismantle systemic racism on our own, but we can all make a change in how we treat others: we can take the time to acknowledge a person’s identity instead of assuming we know it; we can challenge our preconceived notions about people; and we can make an effort to create more inclusive, welcoming spaces. Lauren found Americanah’s insights to be particularly relevant given the current anti-racist zeitgeist in America and the expansion of the Black Lives Matter movement over the past year. Adichie shows us that while academic sources are certainly helpful in facilitating our understanding of racism, novels and other works of literature hold unique value. Americanah is an accessible, engaging story that can therefore appeal to a wider audience. Lauren hopes that she has done it some justice in distilling its profound, nuanced messages into a single paper and supplementing them with a theoretical sociological perspective. Her ultimate hope is that people will read this paper and come away from it inspired to be vectors for sorely-needed social change.
Throughout the semester, working on this paper reaffirmed Bryan’s perceptions of American inequality, but with greater context and detail. Examining the long-term data regarding a lack of opportunity for underprivileged youth in addition to literary scenes further emphasized for him the severity of the threat that inherited inequality poses to American meritocracy. Ideally, the US should work hard to equalize childhood opportunity and fulfill the ideal set by the ‘American dream.’After reading the four works of this book together, Bryan gained an improved understanding of how sociological phenomena shape identities. But he found this lesson to be proven especially poignantly through the literary works cited. If nothing else, this book proves the relevance of literature to understanding humans and human identities, as well as the social factors that shape them. It illustrates the power of literature in chronicling, preserving, and enriching the human experience as well as our comprehension of it.
Kristin truly enjoys analyzing the relationship between society and groups of people. She believes that people assigned themselves in groups within society such as gender, race, or ethnicity. These groups are on different levels and have different roles within society, and these differences allow society to affect the individual within each group. In addition, these effects are not always good and can affect the individual’s society. As she was creating this paper, she really wanted to understand Goffman’s presentation of self with different groups of people. Once she finished the Vanishing Half, her paper came into focus with the lives of black women. After the murders of Breonna Taylor and Aiyanna Stanely-Jones from police brutality, Kristin wanted to show the importance of black women and how they need to be treated better. She wanted this paper to show how society affects black women and how society can do better.
By analyzing Lamb’s work, Jennifer understood how impactful storytelling and personal accounts are in reframing history by including the multiplicity of voices and perspectives in different contexts. Jennifer learned the importance of continuing to be critical of what voices are being underrepresented and excluded from mainstream narratives. In order to stop the patterns of systemic oppression, it is essential for there to be a shift in prioritization to dismantling power structures like gendered and patriarchal ones. Lamb’s work presented social change driven through spaces of collective healing and resilience. With this paper, Jennifer wanted to highlight the failures of gendered institutions to justice for survivors of sexual violence during wartime. She hopes with this paper you have gained a better understanding of the often hidden stories in history and present day.
Our collective hope is that these papers can teach readers something new about the world they live in — or, even better, inspire our audience to take small actions to improve society. Although the papers vary in topic and theme, they are unified by the use of the sociological perspective, which proved to be an unexpectedly valuable way to analyze literature and, by extension, the world around us. We found that in order to properly dissect and address the social problems discussed in these works of literature — from racism to sexual violence to poverty — a strong theoretical foundation is essential. In tandem, these papers demonstrate the importance of sociological research and works of literature to galvanize social activism and change. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to write these papers and want to especially thank Profe Esther for her inspiring mentorship.