We live in a world fueled by emotion. Sadness, Loneliness, and even Anger. But one of the biggest things in this world people live by is joy and that comes by optimism. It is defined by Oxford Languages by : “Hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.” An example of optimism is a person who is positively confident in their surroundings. For example, A person in a fight it optimistic he will win, and that the fight will be over. Of course, in the world today, optimism is a rare quality, often not expressed enough. It takes time, energy, and full effort to remain completely optimist in the situations we all face today. As others have pointed out, Optimism is usually portrayed as someone stupid, ore naïve. I find this incorrect. Personally I believe, optimism is a sign of intelligence. I argue this because it requires lots of thinking. Take for instance a optimist man who was just in a car crash. He recognizes the fact that easily, he could have died, and instead lived. He understands the complex workings of the crash and the luck he experience. That level of thinking is rather intelligent.
Throughout the duration of this course we have read many great works by a diverse group of writers. Truly because of this course, I have experienced literature on a level I never have been before. We have read works of some of the greatest writers to have ever existed. People like Shakespeare and Martin Luther. While reading these excellent writings, a them is noticed. That theme: Optimism. Most of the discussed literature has a optimistc tone that espicially when read a few times, starts to shine through like a bright star. The espically optimistic writings are those relating to the christian faith and what surrounds it.
Lets begin with the 95 theses.
The 95 theses, written By Martin Luther, is not only one of the most well known, ans studied writngs in the world, it is also an inredibly written piece that deserves an enourmos amount of respect. In short, the 95 theses talked about the sins of the cahtolic church, the sins of the people that go, and what they needed to do to fix it. The simple answer was repent to christ of those sins. Pray for forgiveness.
At this time, for historical context, the catholic church was a very corrupted group. The people working there were more concerned about money and power, that they found a way to use people’s weaknesses against them, Laziness. People, as they are today, were lazy and were looking for an easier way for their sins to be forgiven. As it so happens, the church at the same time came up with an answer. Pay us and your sins will be forgiven. People did this and thought they were doing good, while in reality they were not.
That’s the main reason Luther wrote the 95 theses. To try teach people that their ways were wrong and evil. Some might argue this story is not that optimistc. I would say differently. Just like people today, Luther was trying to teach them that they were wrong. He was helping and ultimatley, trying to save them from damnation. To me, that seems very positive in an out going way. I would also argue that the 95 theses were optimistc as the created a revoltion is Christianity that changed world religion forever. Because of the 95 theses metophorically, the blinded could then again see.
Lets look at another, John Foxe book of Martyrs.
At first glance, this book is extremley sad. It talks about the horrors and the lives that were lost under the Cathlic church. It is a historical work that documents the evils of the Catholic Church, and lives that suffered greatly because of it. This does seem to be a rather serious book. But, that does not mean that it cannot be optimistc. because of the death of those people, it was a warning to people of the Catholic church, and ultimatley gave glory to those that had fallen. When Protestants read the book, Im sure there were many that were terrified. However, I’m sure there were many inspried to keep fighting and pushing for what they believed in.This book could have been their sign that they shouldn’t let there brothers and sisters name go in waste. While the book it upsetting to read, it also shows grit and determination. There is a reason that the book was written. The number of people that died was large. That means many people were willing to fight for what they believed in.
Contintuing with the writngs, Robinson Crusoe.
This story tells of a young man, who while in his youth, sets sail at seas utlimatly crashes on a deserted island. As stated previously with a glance over, this seems like a depressing book to read. But with further anaylizing, we see Crusoe become comfrotable with his surroundings and his life on the island. Now while it is a fiction action book, it does have a meaning of happiness that definitly can be seen. The more time he is there, the more he relizes that he can find happiness through the lord and his surroundings. He also learns the lesson of grateful ness in all situations. When reading this, the passage 1 Thessalonians 5:18 come to mind “Be grateful in all circumstances.” We can definitely see this here. As others have pointed out, This book has the message that even though there are othe things out there, it is important to remain grateful for what you have and recieve. Robinson Crusoe is one of my favortie books of all time. It really discusses the fact that life is not perfect and not every situation is ideal, but through hard work, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
I would also like to discuss hans Christean Anderson.
His story’s are known by children all over the world. He wrote fairy tales and stories that changed lives. The most famous of which the Ugly Duckling. A story that was created because he was bullied in his youth. These writings gave lessons to people all over the world on how to live life. They were optimistic as they showed the world to a child in their eyes, and told what is and isn’t wrong. To me Personally, these are powerful messages that all young generations should hear.
Looking at these great writings, it is easy to wonder, why they created these stories and works. To help the world, to showcase genius, or to provide entertainment. Cetanily with some of these writings such as shakespeare, it could have been a combination of showcasing genuis and providing entertainment.
I personally believe that these writings are all optimistic in their own way. As demonstrated above, each one of these works has a ultimate positive message. Yes some are very gloomy, but with further anaylizing it is not hard to see the fact that these writings have positive themes. Positive themes are very important. They help convey a better connection to the reader in a way. Many people do not want to think negativley, even though it’s easier than thinking positivley. What a lot of people do not understand is the fact that these writngs are important to the overall literature of western society. The ugly duckling showed us there is a way to educate the youth. Macbeth warned people that power and greed destroys. John Foxe is an example of what a powerful tryanny looks like.
What I’m trying to say is that optimistic writing is important and has been in western literature. These are a mear few examples of the many works by many people conveying postive optimisic opinions. These works and Theses’s have set the stage for writers today to contiue to tell amazing stories with some amount of optimism in each.
Not only, however, has optimism been in western literature, has it also been important the devlopment of the world and the modern society we live in now. People like postivity. They dont want to see hear, or experince negativity in anyway. Optisms is important to lots of people and more people than we think. Being the “glass half empty” person in soceity can lead to a terrible depressing life. That’s why many, many people are glass half full.
There is an article on Time magazine written by Hannah Ritchie and it discusses the importance of optimism and how it can help the world today, “Optimism is seeing challenges as opportunities to make progress; it’s having the confidence that there are things we can do to make a difference. We can shape the future, and we can build a great one if we want to. ” To me, that is a powerful quote and defintiley relates to the world we live in today. But it also relates to the power of literature. If we are optistic in our writigns and stories, we can show people that good things and happen and being positive can have excellent outcomes. Literature and reading is a powerful tool. It can educate, entertain and even change the opinions of the world. Optimistic writing can help create beatiful things. However Hannah also talks about how being optimistic is now viewed as bad.” Nevertheless, pessimism still sounds intelligent and optimism dumb. I often feel embarrassed to admit that I’m an optimist. I imagine it knocks me down a peg or two in people’s estimations. But the world desperately needs more optimism”
This quote demonstrates that people will view optimism as stupid. I disagree with that completely. Optimism takes time and energy in thinking and requires a deeper analyses than normal. Hannah continues, “The problem is that people mistake optimism for “blind optimism,” the unfounded faith that things will just get better. Blind optimism really is dumb. And dangerous. If we sit back and do nothing, things will not turn out fine. That’s not the kind of optimism that I’m talking about.” Obiviously blind optimism is a bad idea. Completley sitting back and letting things happen is never smart. It is always better to continue to fight for beliefs, ideas, and values.
Letting things happen around you is how people get hurt. Letting people walk all over in life for the blind optimism that it will get better is not good. However, if in life things are getting you down, have the optimism that things will get better, and then go and do something about it. Take the proactive approach. Be your own saving grace and be optimistic you can do it.
Optimism is a powerful tool is wielded correctly, espically within a well woven story. Through out all of human history stories have entertained, educated and shown different lessons. When I think about the power of a story I like to think about a national Geographic article Titled The Power of Story. “Stories are hardwired into our very biology. Our brains arrive filled with all the cognitive machinery needed to comprehend stories and share them with others. We are storytelling organisms that use narrative structures to organize our thoughts; because we use stories to recall facts, our knowledge is based on stories themselves. Little wonder, then, that our knowledge of early man shows evidence of storytelling—it was there from the start.” This quote really shows the importance of how stories shape the world and the history that we come from.
With these quotes we can see that there is a defintite importance between stories and writings, but now we need to look at one thing. Is optimism important within stories. Yes.
As I have proven here, optimism can change the world. Put simply, the world would have not been able to make the advancments and progess in which it has. Stories make us who we are. The stories we hear and tell help society change and form and can teach us all sorts of lessons. I believe that it is evidently clear that these two very important things are very closely related. As i have shown above, optimistic messages seem to have been sewn in with most of the works. Most of those works have changed and affected the way western literature is read and written. Those stories and writngs truly affected te werstern literautre.
Another quotation comes to mind, “We all share stories. Of family, work, and of our experiences. We refer to myths, folklore, and characters from TV shows to explain things to ourselves and to others. We construct internal narratives to help us make sense of the world. Storytelling is a fundamental part of being human. Stories let us share information in a way that creates an emotional connection. They help us to understand that information and each other, and it makes the information memorable. Because stories create an emotional connection, we can gain a deeper understanding of other people’s experiences.” This quote shows the power i am suggesting that optimism and optiistic writings has conveyed over the years.
As for closing remarks, I would like to include a quote about optimism by Helen Keller, she said, “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. “Now while many things in the discussed essay are rather alternative points of view on some pretty straight forward writing, it’s important to always keep an open mind. Having an open mind leads to further “enlightenment” when reading world famous works. Yes, these were rather depressing works, but that point of view is changed when looking at them through the lens of optimism.
One thing that is important to mention is that optimism is something that has existed forever. It is a human characteristic. It’s simply that human beings have this inate ability to be creative and positive even in the toughest of times. Brian may once said “ The biggest emotion in the bridge of creation is optimism.” This quote I believe is something that has been universally true since the beginning of time, and especially in western literature. Positivity is the life blood of being human. Being able to look at something that’s not great, bad, or even terrible and seeing the silver lining is a human characteristic not seen in other species.
As mentioned above, I discussed the ridicule a person might receive for being optimistic, which is ridicualous. The fact is for years, optimism has died. People just don’t care to think positive or even look into or past immediately what they see. Emotion is becoming less and less useful in a world filled with grey emotionless life. There is a reason that optimism was and is so important. It inspires. Stories of underdogs, hero firemen, these stories help inspire and shape the world we live in. I think that the people who wrote these texts understood the importance of inspiring people, and changing their world view for the better. A quote from Deep Roy summarizes my point well, “ inspiration comes from within yourself. One has to be positive. When you’re positive, good things happen.”
The western world had heavy influence by the writings above. Some give sight into trying times, others warn and teach us valuable lessons that can be used in everyday life. In some way shape or form, these writings influence the culture and way of life that we have today. I think that it’s a duty of a student studying these works to at least try to persuade the readers into thinking that these writings in some way shape or form help us in a positive way from a more optimistic point of view.
In summation, I would like to thank the reader for reading and considering an alternative point of view. Optimism is something that should never die, never be crushed, and never disappear. Optimism leads to a happier world view, less stress, and an easier time coping and understanding difficult events. It’s important l, especially in the world today, remain optimistic and positive. Life is difficult and it is very good at making people negative. Optimism combats that negativity and makes a better quality of life. I hope the reader can understand my point of view with these writings and look at them through the same glass I am. Although they may not directly be up lifting, they shaped the world we live in today and I believe have an optimistic undertone important to western literature.
JBSchool 