A Tale of Love and Darkness Response Paper

Amos Oz’s autobiography entitled A Tale of Love and Darkness contains a theme that really jumped out to me. This theme was the theme of the importance and relevance of words, specifically written words, to our daily lives. I specifically found this theme moving, because of how many people think that my field of study (English Literature) is worthless.

            In A Tale of Love and Darkness Oz says, “I loved the way Teacher Zelda placed one word next to another. Sometimes she would put an ordinary, everyday word next to another word that was also quite ordinary, and all of a sudden, simply because they were next to each other, two ordinary words that did not normally stand next to each other, a sort of electric spark jumped between them and took my breath away” (p. 292). I love the way that Oz describes this relationship between words. I think that it is true with any literary work. They are all comprised of words that on their own are just normal every day words with normal meanings, but when you place them together they create something magical. This is similar with the way life works. Life is not about the amazing unbelievable things; it’s about the ordinary things that come together to make something extraordinary.

            My favorite quote comes from a passage where Oz describes his teacher’s words as coming alive based on their meanings. He says, “In a story about snow, the writing itself seemed to be formed of icy words. In a story about fires, the words themselves blazed. And what a strange, hypnotic sweetness there was in her tales about all sorts of miraculous deeds! As though the writer had dipped his pen in wine: the words reeled and staggered in your mouth”(p. 294). I found this metaphor to be extremely profound, because Oz is spot on in the respect that words are suppose to represent something. When we read words that describe a scene, a smell, a noise or a texture our senses should come alive. We should be able to see, smell, hear or touch the things being described. The words should literally bring them to life. I think that the power of words is often under estimated in today’s society where communication and access to unbelievable amounts of “literature” is easy. I found it refreshing that Oz does not take the importance of words and literature for granted.

            I also liked how Oz portrayed the fact that books could transport the reader to a different place. That they could help them experience things that they could not experience in reality and would help them escape the fear and pressures of daily life. Oz talks about the feelings of the people in Jerusalem during his childhood saying that, “books were the slender lifeline that attached [their] submarine to the outside world” (p. 298). During this time there was much conflict and it was hard for the people to remember anything besides this fear and violence, so books were there outlet to remember things like forests and meadows and peaceful cottages. Oz also says “In those years, as I said, I hoped I would grow up to be a book. Not a writer but a book. And that was from fear” (p. 298). Here Oz is acknowledging that books were his escape from the hardships and fear of daily life. They were the one place that he felt safe. Oz also touches on this theme of being able to lose ourselves in literature when he is describing his teacher Zelda reading to the class and going over the time that the lesson should have already been over. He describes the children as “leaning forward on [their] desks so as not to miss a word” and describes an impatient mother who would come and stand at the door and then get lost in the story as well. She would become transported away by the story and temporarily forget all the pressing things that she had to do which had caused her initial impatience.

            In conclusion, I was fascinated by the way that Oz put my thoughts on words into words in chapter 37 of his autobiography A Tale of Love and Darkness. I am not sure I have ever heard someone do a better job of portraying the overlooked importance of words and literature in our daily lives.