by Tatum Bunker
Activism is the act of bringing attention to political, environmental, or social causes, but can be hard to get people to be interested about it. One of the most popular ways people bring attention to these causes is through literature. People use their writing skills to advocate for these causes because writing invokes people’s hearts and minds when reading. Writing is able to raise awareness, foster empathy, and even inspire action. Books are known to have had historical and contemporary impacts on societal attitudes and behaviors. In this article, we’ll cover various activists and how they used their writing platforms to write about the causes they believe so strongly in, the different kinds of literary activism, and books that have activist themes. While this is just a brief summary of activism found in literature, I hope this will inspire you to read and write some of your own.
When the Thirteen Colonies were struggling with their relationship with Great Britain, Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet titled Common Sense. Common Sense advocated for independence from Great Britain, encouraging people to rally and fight for freedom. Another example is from the Women’s Suffrage movement in England. Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre, a book laced with themes of sexism, classism, and feminism. In the late 1800s, reporter Nelly Fly, pretended to be ‘hysterical’ in order to infiltrate a mental asylum to document the horrific treatments of the patients within. After exiting the facility, she wrote about her experience and quickly caused an uproar as many were not aware of these treatments. Other popular books that brought attention to social and political issues include Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men–just to name a few. Animal Farm focuses on the social class struggle, the abuse of power, and the ideas of freedom. It brings awareness to how easily people can become corrupt and warns the readers about totalitarianism. Lord of the Flies is similar in the aspect that it follows totalitarianism and the derogatory effects of power. Of Mice and Men shows the horrible treatment of minorities and the preference of monetary needs over worker’s needs. It’s not just historical fiction that can be activism books either. Books such as The Hunger Games, The Giver, and Ender’s Game are dystopian books that have activist themes as well. These authors write the extremes in order to give us a fictional example of how dangerous these ideals can become situations that happen to us.
If you are active in the literary world, you would know that there is a large list of banned books’ across the world. You may recognize some of these well known titles: Harry Potter, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hate U Give, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Looking For Alaska. The books on this list are works that have been banned in different parts of the world either currently or were once banned due to political, social, or environmental aspects. Different political leaders and governments wanted to keep these ideas away from their citizens to ensure they don’t have revolutionary thoughts, hence the totalitarian systems that were mentioned in those novels. Even across the United States, there are school board meetings about the banning of books in certain schools. Concerned parents and other citizens often demand the removal of books that go against their beliefs, hence destroying the ideals of our freedom of speech.
Just as people are working to remove certain books from our children’s libraries, others are working to add specific content to public access. As someone who frequents the poetry community, I’ve noticed a large increase of poetry covering current social and political injustices. People are using what they’re good at in order to bring attention to something that means a lot to them. A lot of writers have large social platforms that they use in order to show their followers and mutuals what they believe should change.
In order to stand up for what we believe in and to make a change, we can use our skills and interest to advocate. As writers, we have the power to use our writing skills to bring attention to various events and situations that we want to be changed for the better. We are able to educate our readers and show them what they can do to help through writing. Engaging with activist literature and supporting activist authors can promote their works to others who may simply be scrolling through their feeds and introduce them to these issues. Books and other works of literature have such a large potential to inspire meaningful changes in our society and across the world. It’s simple, really. Just start writing.
If you’re interested in checking out more activist literature, I would like to direct you to:
Split the Rock: a collection of activist poetry
Banned Books List: an expanding list of all the books banned across the world
Words With Weight: a literary magazine based around social justice
Follow Tatum @tatum_tot24601 and at her literary magazine @thelettershomecollection
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