Commentary and Self-Evident Perception

"Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it and it has not changed
except to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and
exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have
been decreed by our species...the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's
proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit - for gallantry in defeat, for courage,
compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the
bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not
passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in
literature." – Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, John Steinbeck

Steinbeck, like many other authors of fiction, believed strongly in the power of literature. Literature stems from the human need for contact and understanding about the world; it is the fulfillment of evolutionary processes of human communication. Steinbeck describes this process as oral tradition of passing stories, myths, and legends by word of mouth until written language was perfected and modern novels were created.