A brief paper that argues both sides of an issue: whether classical literature should be studied in school. It also discusses how classical literature can effect popular culture. Includes an outline.

Classic Literature

Many people believe that our classic literature is not important in our society. They think that there are no important or relevant themes in classic literature and since most people don't read them, classics have little effect on our culture. There is also the alternate view that classical literature should be preserved and taught because that is part of our heritage and should not be forgotten. In this essay, I am going to argue that classical literature is important much the same way that history is. It leaves lasting impressions that prevent us from simply repeating what has already happened in history.

Learning classic literature will keep us from moving backwards. If we do not study classics, then we will expend a lot of wasted energy recreating works from the past that already exist. If an author does not read what has already been written, then there may be a chance that he or she will write a story with the same story and theme as a classic.

Classic

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This will divert the author's attention from creating something new. There is also the chance that instead of creating new ideas and stories, we will simply duplicate what has already been written and therefore our culture will move backwards instead of forward.

There are many things that we can learn from our classical literature. For example, many fables have an important lesson that the reader can apply to their lives. If we don't read the story of the boy that cried wolf, then we won't learn that false alarms may cause us some trouble in the future. This is just a simple example. In all of our classic literature, there are many things that we can learn and apply to our lives. Without reading these books, we will forget many...