Relationships in Literature

Relationships in Literature

Literature, cinema and songs are mediums that are all used to inform and entertain the public. This essay will focus on how different views of relationships are made use of in the listed mediums to entertain and inform the modern world through the examination of three texts; Mothers And Daughters, Johnno and On The Birth Of A Son.

Relationships in literature give individuals, young or old, an insight into the possibilities of relationships: whether it be love or hate, independence or interdependence, or just friendships. As well as opening a person’s mind up to the possibilities of a relationship, relationships shown in literature also help one to understand what to expect in a relationship, the texts Mothers and Daughters, On The Birth Of A Son and Johnno all provide an insight into the many forms of relationships.

Literature allows the viewer to understand what relationships involved more than one hundred years ago. Writers such as Shakespeare and Charles Dickens display this in their works, which have proven their relevance in today’s world.
Although literature entertains many people by having a happy ending to a relationship or story, in many cases literature, particularly cinema can be misleading about the actual reality of some relationships, mostly love. This is in the sense that not every relationship between people works out.

The novel Johnno entertains the reader by using the different personalities of two completely different boys. It shows how a person can have a certain view of a ‘type’ of person but can change with the development of a friendship. This idea is displayed in the quote “which I had come to accept as preferable, at least, to the sort of savagery he reserved for the other boys in our class who were equally serious and well-behaved”. The film Jack and Lily is similar to this book as it too shows the development of a relationship between two completely different people. They both also show how a persons view towards a particular type of person can change throughout a relationship.

The poem On The Birth Of A Son informs its audience by the use of the poet’s mixed emotions. The poet doesn’t particularly like the fact that the boy will not always follow the path his father would prefer. However the father is still more than able to respect his son and appreciate his presence. The quote “I looked beyond the stones and saw the view.” demonstrates the way in which the author appreciates the child despite the enormous and somewhat disruptive adjustments he had to, and will continue to have to make in order to have a child in his life.

In the poem Mothers and Daughters it shows how girls grow up into their mothers and steal their beauty. Mothers see themselves as a young girl in their daughters but the daughters don’t yet notice how similar they are to their mothers. This is used to inform the reader of the general characteristics of the mother-daughter relationship. Through this text the characteristics of the relationship show the mother and her daughter to be rivals in a slight sense. This text uses the lines “They mock their anxious mothers with their mothers’ eyes”. The song never grow up is similar to this poem as it discusses family relationships, although it shows the relationship between a sister and her little brother. This song can be used to see how inter-family relationships can differ.

This essay has shown how literature, cinema and songs entertain and inform our world about relationships. This had been proven through the study of the texts Mothers and Daughters, On The Birth Of A Son and Johnno.