Photo credit: Charlotte Whittington

Books sit together on a bookshelf in the library. To 10th grader Charlotte Bloomfield, classic books are important because they help us see and feel differing opinions. “Classic books are considered timeless because they still hold a lot of relevance today and can teach us a lot of things,” Bloomfield said. “In only allowing ourselves to read books that validate our own perspectives and our own time period, we’re completely ignoring what classic books can teach us.”

“Fahrenheit 451,” “1984,” “Animal Farm,” “Little Women“ and “The Great Gatsby.” All of these books have something in common: They are considered classics. 

Classic books are books that have remained pertinent and impactful over generations through common themes of war, power, love and loss. We often read them in schools because of the way they teach these themes and encourage students to grapple with ideas and challenges of the past and future.

Belinda Eleftheriades is an eighth and 10th grade English teacher. She said the themes of uniformity and censorship in “Fahrenheit 451” reveal a deeper truth about what could happen in a future ruled by an authoritarian administration.

“If you’ve read ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ the whole methodology of controlling a group of people was to keep them from reading,” Eleftheriades said, “and so quite the opposite is what I think Bradbury’s point was in writing ‘Fahrenheit 451’: that we need to keep these books, even the old ones, the ones that we are like, ‘Oh, this is so hard, I don’t know why we have to read this anymore.’ Those are especially important because they give us a mirror to ourselves, to our society.” 

Eleftheriades said the studies of history, literature and language are essential for society to function, and without them, people would lose themselves and key societal values. She used “Fahrenheit 451” again as an example of what could happen if we lose history and literature.

“We study the humanities, the act of being human, the act of making choices and having these decisions that impact our state of the world,” Eleftheriades said, “and so if we don’t actively participate in that thought, in the critical thought, then we are letting someone else control us. We have no choices then, and it goes back to ‘Fahrenheit 451.’ When you don’t read, you don’t write.”

“Fahrenheit 451” is an example of what could happen to society if we ban books, Eleftheriades said. “Fahrenheit 451,” “Lord of the Flies,” “The Catcher in the Rye” and other classics have been banned or challenged in libraries and schools. Charlotte Bloomfield (’28) is an avid reader. She said that human history is important to society, and throwing away that history by restricting reading material is dangerous.

“Our own lives are contextualized by our history, and I think that classic novels can really give you an insight into how that is and also show you that. For example, in ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ a book about banning books,” Bloomfield said. “Even now, when more books are being banned than ever, it really shows us how important it is to take a stand against that, even though it was written previously.”

English Department Chair Sara Rubin teaches seventh and 10th grade English classes. Because most classics were written in the past, Rubin said, their meanings have developed and evolved over time.

“Many classical texts include or are guided by worldviews that are outdated, and that’s something that we need to interrogate and understand the text,” Rubin said, “not only within the context that it was written, but the context in which it is read now.”

Context is also important to Eleftheriades. She said Shakespeare revolutionized language and noted how different his books and plays are from other classics written about nations ruled by totalitarian governments, such as “1984” and “Brave New World.” While those governmental systems took away language and words, Shakespeare added many more.

“Shakespeare really is one of the most universal texts, all of his plays,” Eleftheriades said. “Saying happiness, saying that ‘I’m happy,‘ is not enough. What about ecstatic? What about all of these other ways that I can express nuance in feeling and emotion? So for him, it was more about introducing more language to let people express their pain and their jealousy and their all of the things.”

Just as we still read and dissect Shakespeare’s plays today, many classic books fall under the same scrutiny. Bloomfield said having these books around to read and impact generations in the same way is a key part of what makes a classic book so relevant.

“Classic books can show us that themes in our lives can transcend time, especially seeing stuff like ways of life, how love is portrayed in classic novels,” Bloomfield said. “I think it stands the test of time, and I think it’s just really beautiful to see that.” 

Beyond classic books, Rubin discussed the many emotional and physical impacts of all books — not just the famous ones.

“I often think of this quote attributed to George R.R. Martin, which is, ‘The reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,’ and I think that is, inherently, the power of literature, whether it’s ‘classic’ or not, that you are exposing yourself to different experiences, different ideas, and, in turn, you’re not just a passive recipient of that,” Rubin said. “It changes you in the way you think and the way you approach the world in which you live.”

As Rubin mentioned, classic books such as “1984” and “Fahrenheit 451” contain worldviews from many decades ago. However, Eleftheriades said, that is the joy of a good book. To Eleftheriades, books are windows into an author’s mind; she lets herself dive into her imagination and interpret the text in her own way.

“It’s disconcerting to step into a world that is unfamiliar, but that’s also part of it,” Eleftheriades said. “I want to just fall into a world that is unfamiliar because there’s something really beautiful about feeling strange and feeling like a foreigner in a new space and just reading it and being completely confused. I like that feeling.”