Critical Lens

The Quote "Good literature substitutes for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through" by Alex Solzhenitsyn is accurate because the reader gains insight into characters’ lives without actually going through the same experiences; while acquiring knowledge. Good literature transports the reader to a place and time in a story where a character’s experience allows the reader to empathize and understand without having to go through the same situation.

The “Good literature substitutes for an experience” that Solzhenitsyn is talking about can be brought to literature from a protagonist, antagonist or minor character’s perspective. Any of the characters’ experiences may touch the reader enough to make the experience a shared one and not just something that occurs in a book. The reader gains the wisdom of having gone through the experience without ever having lived through it.

In Azar Nafisi’s Teaching Lolita in Tehran: a Memoir in Books, the author writes about her experiences, after expulsion from The University of Tehran for refusing to wear a veil, and the experiences of seven female students. She held literature classes in her home from 1995 to 1997 and they were an open forum for students to discuss the social and political problems of Iran. This memoir contains the universal themes of morality and freedom and focuses on the time that Narfisi and her class discussed different works of literature;  including Lolita  by Nabakov.


Nafisi gives the reader a depiction of what life is like in Iran for women, while connecting Lolita's character to the deterioration of their freedom under Islamic rule. Nafisi's class examinies Humphert's cruelty and justifications for treating Lolita like an object; and compares that to the harsh treatment they have experienced by the unjust Islamic regime. Nafisi succeeds in getting her class to relate to the protagonist, Lolita and the antagonist, Humphert,  while providing the reader with an understanding of what it is like to walk in the shoes of these women who feel suffocated by the imbalance of power men have over them. The reader doesn't have to be a victim of injustices like the Iranian women in this memoir, yet their experiences will invade the reader's mind and cause reactions in the reader as if the experience was a shared one.   The reader connects with the female experiences of subjugation, cruelty and perseverance under Islamic Rule through Nafisi's words and gains wisdom about the situation without living through it. The literature substitutes for the experience because the experience of these Iranian women is felt by the reader, who has never been in this unfortunate predicament, through the perspective of its characters.

In Renee Watson’s What Momma Left Me, the author writes about a 12 year old girl, Serenity, who lives in Portland and loses both of her parents because her daddy kills her momma and runs away. She is afraid of becoming just like her momma and making the same bad choices. She sees her brother, Danny, making the wrong decisions and decides he is like her dad. This piece of fiction contains conflicts concerning identity, good verses evil and the controversial subject of domestic abuse. The underlying theme is about hope and resilience. Even if the reader hasn't experienced domestic violence, lessons about it can be vicariously derived from the text creating a substitute experience. The novel contains the experiences of the protagonist, Serenity, and the other characters so the reader gains insight of having gone through the situation without ever having lived through it. The literature is a substitute for an experience because it bridges the reader's thoughts to the character's emotions.

Alex Solzhenitsyn's quote, "Good literature substitutes for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through" is true as readers haven’t had the same experiences in their lives as the characters in literature and they can vicariously live through them without actually having them.  Azar Nafisi describes a harsh existence for women in Teaching Lolita in Tehran: a Memoir in Books and Renee Watson depicts a life that could go down the wrong road or persevere up the right one in What Momma Left Me.  The reader may not have the same experiences, however, these pieces of literature help the reader feel and experience unknown situations and what it is like to overcome them. Therefore, it is possible for the reader to gain wisdom through literature through the substitute experience.

10 Point Scoring Rubric

Critical Lens

Quality	Mastery	Progressing
Meaning	-provide an interpretation of the "critical lens" that is faithful to the complexity of the statement and clearly establishes the criteria for analysis -Analyzes more than summarizes -make insightful connections between the criteria for analysis and the chosen texts	-Conveys aconfused or simple understanding of the "critical lens"  -Summarizes more than analyzes -Makes unclear or incorrect connections between information and ideas
Development	-develop ideas clearly and fully -makes effective use of appropriate literary elements and techniques in both texts	-uses superficial or too few examples from the texts -does not make effective use of appropriate literary elements and techniques in both texts
Organization	-maintains a clear and appropriate focus established by the critical lens -exhibits a logical and coherent structure through effective use of appropriate devices and transitions	-sometimes unclear or its focus is inappropriate as established by the critical lens -contains some inconsistencies or irrelevancies
Language Use	-uses appropriate language -vary structure and length of sentences to control pacing	-relies on basic vocabulary -reveals little awareness of how to use sentence structure effectively
Conventions	-demonstrates control of the conventions grammar, spelling and punctuation	-demonstrates partial control of grammar, spelling and punctuation

Total:_______