Introduction
A challenging task faces writers who want to evoke readers’ emotions and provoke them into thinking about crucial life issues. They need to make readers believe their characters, sympathize with them, and identify with them; otherwise, the audience’s attention will be lost. Joseph Conrad once stated his opinion about what is essential to be a writer: “A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.” This quote correctly shows what writers need to win over the audience – interest and sympathy for human foibles. Human weaknesses are the necessary attributes of believable characters and powerful drivers of the plot; therefore, writers should possess good knowledge of human nature to create works of literature that would be valued by readers.
Main body
The main idea of Joseph Conrad’s saying is that writers are not those who simply write and publish books. Anyone can write a book, and many people do it, which is evident from a large number of books published every year. However, only a few of them survive the criticism and stand the test of time. Those books are written by true writers who have “interest or sympathy for the foibles” of people. A genuine writer is, in the first place, an explorer of human nature, behaviors, worries, temptations, motives, and inner struggles. Only when a writer has gained an insight into multiple sides of human nature, even the darkest ones, he or she takes a pen and creates a story. Such stories, written by experts on human foibles, stir the imagination and make readers empathize with characters and share their life experiences. Moreover, such books have a greater chance of preserving their relevance for future generations because human weaknesses are universal and have existed throughout the history of mankind.
From my point of view, Conrad’s emphasis on writers’ interest in human foibles is justified. Every story involves some actors who drive the plot by their decisions and actions, and in most cases, these actors are humans. Even if characters are animals, plants, or other entities, they always act as if they were humans or represent particular human traits. Hence, every writer is faced with the problem of developing characters for his or her story. To make these characters believable, writers should be well-aware of different types of personalities and, most importantly, they should keep in mind that no person is perfect. Therefore, every well-developed character will have some weaknesses, along with strengths. Even if a writer wants to depict a hero, some details about this hero’s foibles will make him more human, and he will receive more attention and response from readers. Thus, writers’ interest in human weaknesses helps them create characters whom readers are willing to trust.
Another reason for a writer to pay attention to human foibles is that they are powerful drivers of the plot. Although people are expected to act as rational beings, they sometimes fail to do so and make mistakes due to a sudden rush of emotions or some internal motives. A famous saying, “to err is human,” confirms this peculiarity of human nature. Since most book characters are either humans or represent humans, they also can make mistakes. They should make mistakes because a story, in which everything goes right and everyone acts rationally, becomes boring at some point. Errors made by characters because of their foibles compel readers’ attention to the story and make them devour page after page to find out how characters handle difficult situations in which their mistakes put them. Furthermore, characters’ weaknesses and mistakes resulting from them help writers teach their readers important life lessons.
An excellent example of a writer interested in people’s foibles is William Faulkner. One of his works, Barn Burning, is focused on human weaknesses: Abner Snopes’ foible was burning barns of his employers, and his son Sarty’s weakness was loyalty to his family. Faulkner was surely an explorer of human nature since he managed to show the underlying reasons for the characters’ actions and the consequences of their decisions. For Abner, who was a poor man roaming from one farm to another, burning barns was the only way to demonstrate his power. As Faulkner wrote, “the element of fire spoke to some deep mainspring” of Abner’s character (4). The man regarded fire “as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity … to be regarded with respect and used with discretion” (Faulkner 4). Even though Abner does not evoke readers’ sympathy, his foible makes them understand that poverty, war, and oppression may destroy humaneness and compassion within a human.
The character of Sarty arouses different feelings in the audience. This boy was torn between his loyalty to his father and his internal sense of justice. Abner persuaded his son of the necessity of sticking to one’s family: “You got to learn to stick to your blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you” (Faulkner 4). Thus, Sarty was faced with a difficult choice: either to be blind to his father’s wrongdoings or to do what was fair and lose the connection to his family. After an internal struggle, Sarty defeated his weakness and chose justice over relationships with his family, thus preserving his loyalty to the self.
Conclusion
In conclusion, literature is a mirror of the human soul, which reflects both human strengths and weaknesses. To make readers believe the reflection in the mirror, writers should depict their characters as close to reality as possible. In order to do this, writers need to be explorers of human nature, interested in and sympathizing with people’s foibles. A good grasp of human weaknesses allows writers to create masterpieces resonating with many readers.
References
Faulkner, William. Barn Burning. 1939, Web.