"All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man."Jiddu Krishnamurti

          As students, we have been ripping writing into pieces in search of political and social undertones for years now. There seems to be an emphasis on finding a deeper meaning in everything we read, in order understand everything that much better. Personally, I tend to enjoy books more when I haven't analyzed the hell out of them for an extended period of time. 

           Aristotle maintained that humans by nature are political beings. So, regardless of whether or not a writer has applied conscious effort to incorporate themes of a political or social nature into their work, such ideas will creep in.  This is true in the case of both Cheever and Dickenson. Cheever makes reference to The American Dream, and Cold War paranoia regarding  Communism in his stories. Similarly, Dickenson’s poetry can be deconstructed to find  allusions of The American Civil War. We cannot escape contemporary political or social influences in  our ever day lives so why should our writing be any different?

           In an interview, Mo Yan stated that "Because a writer lives within society, the life that he describes includes politics and a wide variety of social problems, so a writer who cares about society, a writer who cares about the suffering of people, should naturally be critical.” A novel that successfully  incorporates a wonderful quality of writing and a political/social statement to me, is ideal. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is a great example of this as it tackles the idea of a totalitarian socialist future-which was gaining  influence in Europe at the time of the book’s publication.