According to Northup Frye, the purpose of literature is to educate the imagination and to train the readers to imagine what is possible. This statement is very well-phrased, and it is also very accurate. What Frye meant when he said this was that the foremost purpose of it was to expand our imaginations and to get us thinking about might happen if we did something differently in a certain way. The Tenth Man by Graham Greene is a perfect example of this. It gives us a situation, and makes us wonder, "What would happen if something had happened differently?" Although we can never find out "what would happen" because time has an unfortunate habit of never repeating, we can always guess what would happen, which is exactly what the goal of this book was. The reason for us discussing the books we read in English class is so we can expand our minds to the hidden messages of literature.
English: This is the grave of Graham Greene in the...
English: Blue plaque outside Graham Greene's Birth...
George Chavel speaking at the award ceremonyAlthough authors constantly include symbols, themes, and other literary devices on purpose, sometimes the reader visualizes his/her own things that were not intentionally placed. At these rare moments is when the reader gains the most valuable thing that they could get from the book; imagination. Even if the reader forms from the book that is totally opposite from what the author was trying to convey, the goal of creative literature has been reached. I do not believe that Greene wrote this novel in order to get the readers to agree with his beliefs on fate. I believe that he wrote it in order for the readers to come up with their own opinions about fate.
Chavel is introduced to the book as a lawyer sitting in a German prison cell during WWII. One day, the Germans demand that the prisoners...