Everyday Canvas

Fiction's Influence and Crowds and Loneliness

For "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" 
Prompt: Do you think a novel influences change in society? Do you think Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird,or any other novel you know of ever achieved such a change?

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I do, although not every novel can initiate a change.

To see a novel’s influence on society, one only needs to view the past. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beacher Stowe did transform views on slavery as did the Animal Farm by George Orwell about government and politics. The same can be said for Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front for influencing our perspective on wars.

When the readers feel empathy and understanding for the characters in a story, they identify with them and begin consciously or subconsciously to apply their situation to the present-day’s events and problems.

Novels also let us connect with other people and cultures. Although some of those may not be life-changing in terms of their content, they may entertain or humor us and let us see the other cultures through their dramas and stories, and thus, make them acceptable and familiar to us.

Although we can’t quantify or even qualify the degree the novels influence us, just the reading evolution that is going on today says something about their significance. The fact is, fiction like all arts is important, and it should be acknowledged as an entity tattooing its print on society.

For: "Space Blog Group" 
Todays star is: bobturn from planet:"Invalid Item" 
"Sometimes the loneliest place is in a crowd."
Do you get lonely in crowds? Why or why not?

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It depends on the crowd. However rare, there were crowds that made me feel lonely. Usually, I am fine with any crowd, and I may even flourish in a crowd I am not much familiar with. But then, I also am never lonely when alone, either.

It is normal to feel lonely or as if not belonging within a crowd if the people in it have formed a clique and do not, honestly, welcome me among them. Worse yet, I not only feel lonely but also annoyed and angry if the members of the crowd like to pick on me for anything, like for being a brunette (yes, that has happened), or for not being rich or as poor as them, or for being too tall, too short, too thin, too fat, or for my beliefs and their difference with their belief systems—the list may be endless.

Many years ago, I made friends with a group of women from another culture whose language I didn’t know. When we met in someone’s home, these wonderful women took it upon themselves to designate a person to sit with me and to translate what they were saying, should they by mistake forget to talk in English. Now, this was one crowd I never felt lonely in. In fact, in hindsight, I think they were much better than the crowd I grew up in.

To wrap it up, I believe that it is not me who feels lonely in a crowd, but a certain crowd itself that makes me feel lonely. I think, for anyone, feeling lonely in all kinds of crowds and without a good reason may point to an unmet emotional need or a psychological problem, in which case that need or problem needs addressing immediately.