Perception and the Truth

Many credit Lee Atwater with the quote, “Perception is reality.” And when viewing your own life, does this not ring true? One would never consider a turtle to be a speedy creature, but then again, that depends on who is doing the considering.

Perspectives have much to do with experiences, schema, and interpretation. Author’s bring their own unique perspectives to the texts they write. They select what they will reveal to the reader explicitly and implicitly, how the text will be organized, and how their point of view will be carried out. Often the author’s own ideas begin as incomplete thoughts, twisting and turning through the process of writing, changing and evolving until they come out the other side into a cohesive whole. At times, the characters of novels reveal themselves to the authors through the storytelling, and take on a life of their own, and yet, the author still has command over what will be revealed through the character’s dialogue, actions, and thoughts. Despite all this control, readers develop their own interpretation based upon the evidence within the text, but also their own personal perspectives. Other experiences with texts, the world, and other people affect how they view what the author reveals. Therefore, readers apply their own connections to develop their own perspective, but must also examine the evidence within the text to understand what the author directly reveals as well as infer to gain meaning from underlying messages, ideas, and themes.

Common Core emphasizes the importance of point of view, devoting standard six for Reading Literature and Informational Text to this concept. Why is it so significant? Understanding the role of point of view allows the reader to think critically about a piece. What are the author’s motives and purposes in writing a text? What context or historical background does the author emerge from? How does this affect the portrayal of events? Readers must understand the effects of their own perceptions and the author’s point of view in order to get at the truth of what they are reading. Even then, that gets us to a deeper question – what is the truth?

I find it fascinating to examine a variety of quotes about perception, since it is our perception that skews how we view everything. I imagine these quotes would be great for analysis within the classroom to develop understanding of perspectives and point of view. Thinking about the quotes below, what do they mean? Do you agree or disagree, why? How does this apply to your life? How does this apply to what we read? What are the implications? Can you find examples that support or negate these statements?

“All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.”
― Aldous Huxley

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”
― Wayne W. Dyer

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew

Differences in points of view open up our world for debates. They can allow us to find both fallacies in our thinking, and strength in our ideas. The inherent elements of perception is that they are skewed. Therefore, as critical readers, we must be mindful of how information is presented and perceived. That is why I encourage you to read this article again carefully because afterall, this is just my point of view…