what do you think this quote means?

Question

"It is the responsibility of the writer to expose our many grevious faults and failures and to hold up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams, for the purpose of improvement" ~john steinbeck

the first answer kinda confused me more...

Answer 1

When we deal with a real problem, alone or in a team - like real starvation, discrimination, going broke, winning the lottery, fighting a fire, a disease, a moral issue - life can make cowards or bullies of us, even in our own minds.

Survivors deal with this by forgetting, short-term. I think he means that writers should have the courage to call us on it. To say how it was at the time, for those involved.

Instead of painting heroes or painting people into a corner, a writer should face up to reporting how it happened, and how real people react under pressure. That it's normal to have bad feelings, selfish feelings, to worry about your own skin or only for those people you actually like (at the time).

But when the pressure's off - it's better to do some thinking about who kept that pressure up, about who favoured pressurising others, about who benefited from that situation. To make sure we don't forget how unfair that was overall. So it doesn't keep happening, so we don't train ourselves to make the same mistakes all over again, someone should have the right to record or to imagine how it was for them. Hopefully it will cheat similar people of the chance to manufacture that situation again and profit from it. Pretty much lines up with the US declaration, really.

Say you hate what someone does, or how they act. OK, so it's hateful. So they are used to hateful situations. First, you want them to back off, and you want some personal control. You can't pity them. But 15 years later, you might suddenly feel pretty sick that you were so hard on them for appearing mean - maybe it suddenly will be obvious to you that they had nothing else, or cheated because they were beaten for getting low marks. Shame would make you keep that to yourself.

Sometimes people write about how how easy it is to be too hard on someone in revenge. He's also maybe saying that if you can write of dark feelings and hurt, of how it feels to miss out, it might remind us not to gloat when it's our turn. Not to twist the knife, not to abuse our power, but to share it so others don't feel backed into a corner. Because when that happens, all that results is that we swap places, and nobody sees through it to make any choices worth living with.

Lots of other ways you could read that quote, though.
You'll likely get extra credit for quoting from Steinbeck's novels - like "The Pearl". If any of his characters have "dark & dangerous dreams", or faults they hide, and these come back to bite them later, that would be a useful way to show you knew where he (John S.) was coming from.

Answer 2

In street English:

"The people who write books need to point out all the bad things about society and how we are screwing up and to expose the dangerous dreams [becoming rich, marrying a model, etc.] that we sometimes have. When we read what these authors have written we should be motivated to change our ways for the better."

Answer 3

It implies that The Cat is having Chicken for Dinner this night, definitely approximately it. The Cat will likely be steadfast in his pursuit of that darn fowl and make that declaration precise. That's what it way! Darn fowl, The Cat demands his cosmetic sleep! I'll exhibit that cock!

Answer 4

I guess it's kind of like the pen is mightier than the sword; it is through writing that change comes to the world.

Hope that helps at least a little bit

Answer 5

Hope he's a helluva good writer. Lot of responsibility there!! Almost makes one scared to answer. "The world is a book"--at least it can be if it's a good one.

Answer 6

The writer holds up a mirror allowing us to see ourselves more clearly, and from that clearer vision we are able to change and improve.