In many ways, humans are defined by language, and language shapes how we understand the world. Reading and writing offer deep pleasures, but they also offer insight into society and the means to change and direct public discourses. Literature is where society expresses its ideals – and where those ideals are contested and refined. The ability to understand what people are saying – not just their literal meanings, but the subtexts, the buried assumptions, the latent symbols that move them – is useful anywhere language and critical thinking are valued.