The following paper will analyze how any piece of writing can have an influence on society in order to apply literature in class, as future teachers. It is important to mention that the arguments for this topic are going to be based on “The letter to Sir Walter Raleigh seen in class”.
The letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, written by Spenser, is the most famous literary resource constructed in “The faerie Queen”. In that book, it is possible to evidence that Raleigh's position of influence was greatly extended as he became one of Elizabeth's spymasters.
The importance of the letter is situted in the way the author represented values through an allegory. Seeing that Spenser wanted to inspire people through moral, religious and personal values, it can be raised a question: Do values have an impact on society? Then, after this introduction, it is important to define this concept before to start analysing it.
According to Literary terms and definitions, the word allegory derives from Greek allegoria which means speaking otherwise. So, it describes any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning. An allegorical reading usually involves moral or spiritual concepts that may be more significant than the actual, literal events described in a narrative. It is really common in allegories the use of multiple symbols which create moral, spiritual, social, or even political meaning. You may ask what the purpose of an allegory is. Regarding to the previous definition, allegory has a moral purpose behind mans life. “An allegory is an act of interpretation, a way of understanding, rather than a genre in and of itself” (Wheeler). That is why the reader has an important role. Reader’s interpretation helps to understand the abstract concepts written in an allegory. In addition, “allegory might be a tool for discovering truth” (Quilligan 151).
After seen what an allegory is and its purpose, “The letter to Sir Walter Raleigh” is the best example of allegory in literature. Moreover, it will be analyzed in terms of its representation, and author’s purposes.
Certainly, Spenser used King Arthur because he represents an extremely good man who possesses the most recognizable and important distinctiveness in those times. In addition, this story can be related to an allegory because the author used symbolic figures for representing human characteristics that express the idea of brilliance. Spenser also wanted to put emphasis on the attributes that were significant. For instance, Red Crosse represented holinesse; Sir Guyon intended temperance and Lady Knight expressed chastitie. As has been said, all of them represented greatness.
In fact, the purpose of writing this letter was for protecting himself from social problems, religious conflicts and evil temptation. He sent the letter to Sir Walter Raleigh because he was the best example of magnificence; he was a well known man who could provide that protection and security.
Social issues are not something obvserved just in the past. Actually, they can be noticed in today’s society. Definitely, culture plays an important role on society. The culture is the basic area where a society conceives its values and transmits them among different generations.
According to all the text read in the literature course, society in the past was always following, reproducing the same model. For example, in terms of women’s rights, they had to be in charge of children and house and this was a precedent for discrimination. In contrast, in today’s world, women have the right to live as we want. Besides, we can have more participation in society. There is something that will always exist, that is, prejudices that we, as society, tend to have towards what is good and bad.
Norman Feather, a famous professor, believes that the concept of values enables the social issues to bridge the gap between the analysis of the individual and the analysis of the society in which that individual lives.
Therefore, it has been discussed that allegory has moral purposes which are in relation with values. Thinking on these values, they are going to influence the social context. That means the behavior of a society is considered appropriate when one seeks to improve the life in society without damaging others.
Similarly, all kind of values like honesty, perseverance, bravery, generosity, etc. make an influence in people’s way of thinking, and consenquently in their way of behaving.
After analyzing “The letter to Sir Walter Raleigh” and its influence on values which affect society, it is possible to see that literature is not just a matter of reading novels. It is equally important that “through literature teachers can transmit knowledge integrated to a culture; and to an ethical dimension” (Camps). That is why teachers can teach values like respect to the others. For example, reading poems together with students, representing plays, etc. Teachers have to bear always in mind collaborative work.
As Santos Guerra claims, “a school has to contribute to the improvement of society through the formation of critical citizens, especially forming people in all their dimensions” (1). Teachers have to forget that their main aim is teaching the subject. To me seems that it is a serious error to base methodologies thinking that only students are going to learn. Through this way of seeing education, students are seen as empty vessels that teachers have to fill in. In the same way, children are frequently ignored and unfortunately they are not being supported by teachers. For instance, students’ wishes, doubts and fears are left out of the classroom which means students cannot act as people and they have to be concentrated on acquiring the subject for reproducing what they are taught.
Indeed, it turns out frequent to listen that language and culture are intimately related, but, nevertheless, in the didactic practice, traditionally a separation has taken place between one and another reality. At schools, there are few hours of "grammar" and others of "culture" (Miquel, Sans). Despite that, teachers have to relate the English language with students’ background in order to make it meaningful.
As it was mentioned before, teacher training programs should be focused on constructivist learning models that take into account students as whole people. That means the role of the teacher in students’ learning is to make possible this process by providing a support in every sense of their learning. This does not imply letting students do whatever they want. In contrast, this means students can give opinions and in that way they will become more active in their learning process.
Finally, in my opinion, literature is a useful tool that allows us to have an approach to other forms of culture. In fact, other cultures with different characteristics from ours. In a future, this will lead people to have wider points of view that will help to understand diversity in social terms.
