What makes a novel "a classic"? Discuss.
Often times I've wondered why we read the books we do in our English classes. I mean, most of them are just books written by people who only wrote one book and then went and did something weird, like shoving their head in a hot oven or isolating themselves from the rest of the world. So, okay, does this mean that if I write a book and then disappear into the Bermuda triangle, my book will become a "classic"? Probably not. However, what I've noticed is the following:
In each book we read, there is a thread that connects all of the books to each other. The thread is called controversy. No matter if it was the Catcher in the Rye, Wuthering Heights, or Malcolm X, we learned about controversial people and controversial ideas. Maybe we do this because it provokes discussion. Or maybe the curriculum is this way to challenge us and make us pour out our deepest thoughts about life and society as we know it today. Or maybe they just really want to piss us off...either way--
controversy is what makes a novel a "classic".
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