Introduction

Suffering and loss pervade world literature, reflecting that there is no guarantee of happiness, safety, or peace for humanity. Literature opens readers' eyes to events and lifestyles they would perhaps not otherwise experience, and with those experiences they come to understand the dark things that one human being will do to another out of fear, hate, greed, and ignorance. There is a difference, however, between the darkness that is an essential part of life, and the imposed darkness that results from prejudice and discrimination.

Essential darkness includes the inescapable problems of life, and not—for these are not essential—the cruelties individuals impose on one another. Cruelty is not part of the natural course of life, but is rather the product of distorted will. Prejudice and hate are imposed darkness: the misuse of intelligence and willpower, the...