Writers: Original or Copycats with Class?
From the time a young child learns
to notice, comprehend, and remember he or she begins to accumulate knowledge.
As one expands their knowledge they can start to make connections between
similarities and differences. In his chapter, “Now, Where Have I Seen Her
Before?” Thomas C. Foster encourages his readers to use their accumulated
knowledge to notice similarities in stories, especially “to remember this:
there’s no such thing as a wholly original work of literature.”
After introducing the idea that
writers use previous works to inspire their stories he expands on the stories
taken from Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet,
is one of Shakespeare’s most renown works, and the story has been implanted
into our thoughts. It is almost impossible to watch or read modern works without
coming across the tale of star-crossed lovers. We see the idea of fate and
power of love juxtaposed by uncompromising circumstances that surround love.
This can be seen in a number of stories, both old and new. From older texts,
one can find Romeo and Juliet
paralleled to Jane Austen’s Pride and
Prejudice. In another adaptation, the musical West Side Story mimics the struggle of forbidden love seen in
Shakespeare’s play. Both Pride and
Prejudice and West Side Story use
elements from Romeo and Juliet. The lovers are inhibited from being together
whether it be for the strict English class system or for the rivalry of New
York City gangs.
Foster also mentions that writers
tend to employ stories from the Bible. Christianity is a dominant religion of
Western culture, and as a result, has become a fundamental element of English literature.
Allusions and symbols of revelation and redemption are found in a variety of
literary works. The Lord of the Flies
by William Golding calls on ideas from Christianity to communicate themes. Some
analyze the island the schoolboys land on in the novel as a representation of
the Garden of Eden. The island is a clean slate for the boys and is described
as a paradise; however, the temptation of power and control lead the boys to
self-destruction and destruction to the island. It appears that the loss in
innocence experienced by Adam and Eve can be compared to the loss of innocence
the boys in the Lord of the Flies partake.
Golding represents how not only young children lack innocence, but all humans
do as well and are subject to temptations.
Authors are influenced from stories
older than the Bible and Shakespeare – ancient Greek stories. One well-known
tale that still finds itself intertwined in literature is the epic, The Odyssey. The Odyssey tells of the
many challenges Odysseus goes through to return home to his wife. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier is one
novel in which the main character, Inman, is trying to escape the war to go
home to his love Ada. Along the way Inman’s quest encounters numerous road
stops and people who prolong his arrival home much like The Odyssey. The Greek story can even be found in film. In the
movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? characters, Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar, are
escaping from imprisonment, and they face similar situations to Odysseus. In
one scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
the characters come across beautiful women singing in a river; these women correspond
to the Sirens in The Odyssey who lure
men to their death and distract them from the quest.
Writers pull ideas from multiple pieces of previous work. However,
the Bible, Shakespeare, and Greek stories are three areas in which writers are
consistently influenced by. New works aren’t all just copies of older texts;
authors use the stories weaved into our consciousness as a way to communicate
something deeper than the words on the page. As Foster constantly reminds us
“there’s only one story.”
