In John Gardner's On Moral Fiction
There is a strong impression that conversations focused on the concept of moral fiction and how to define it. From the standpoint of moral fiction's goal of teaching the audience without addressing real personalities, it becomes simple to transmit the moral message without demonizing individuals. "We recognize real art by its rigorous, completely honest quest for and study of values," Gardner said. It is not didactic because, rather than teaching through authority and force, it explores openly to learn what it should teach." Gardner (19th). Nevertheless, the author noted that moral fiction in essence is pervasive in its sublime nature. It is capable of provoking human thoughts it realizing the good that came with morality. In this view, the author informs the target audience of the negative approach that people associates with morality that "... morality has become, in many people's minds, an unattractive word ... but the only thing wrong with morality ... is that it's frequently been used as a means of oppression." (Gardner 56) Therefore, moral fiction addresses audience who are liberal minded as well as appeals to individuals who seek to ensure that people’s lives are improved in the society. Morality significantly unites forces that work to bring people together through breaking cultural barriers.
Concisely, fiction morality creates awareness among people through highlighting the moral expectations of the societies as evident in various themes. The author in affirmatively agrees with Tolstoy that the highest purpose of art is to make people good by choice. Therefore, moral fiction is a literary technique that accounts for the notion that “Perfectly comfortable art is dead art, the product of an embalmed mind that has nothing to say to anyone, even the aesthetically dead" (Gardner 78)
Work Cited
Gardner, John. On Moral Fiction. Open Road Media, 2013.
