What drives remarkable men and women in history? If history is the study and recording of the changes that occur in human civilization, it would be sensible to say that these people are those that initiated change whether of positive or negative inclinations.
It matters not the context for whom or what they committed these changes for; they all share common traits in which they become similar: from the Marxist Joseph Stalin to the Liberal Martin Luther King Jr. - many of these remarkable people are learned men and women who have been inspired to drive change through the ideas they've conceived from the many works they've read, most of which are works of literature. Although these people vary in their inclinations, motives, ideologies and understandings of whatever they've read, all of them have been enlightened by the countless "worlds" that they've "journeyed on" that revealed the imperfection of their world, of reality, as a result of reading literature. They have become "rebellious spirits:" people who have molded critical, non-conformist minds that would not settle on simplistic gilded injustices and are able to see through the lies, comforts and illusions of individuals who seek power through abuse and solipsistic whims and desires. They become aware of the inequities that surround them and attempt to free themselves of the chains that keep them from the truth and the ideal. The worlds they've read about, the values and the virtues they've come to learn from literature becomes their food and fuel to bring these worlds, their values and virtues, out to their own reality. Literature becomes their inspiration while they commence the change they seek; the inequities that bind them from truly living the life they desire disappear whenever they read and remind themselves of the literary works that "fed" them the idea of the world in which they seek fruition to become reality. The fact that these ideas are present in literature, the concepts of the ideal, gives them hope that their world can be improved, thus becoming rebels of their current state. The fact that these ideals have spanned generations before them prove that the hungry spirit in which us humans seek to be satisfied has long desired them; trite concepts that generations have seek fruition though never fully realized. It was only a matter of time before one of deep desire, indomitable will and discontent spirit emerges in history to attempt, in great faith, their realization. They become uneasily swayed by petty satisfaction of physical needs and desires; literature becomes their comfort in their struggle for change. They would have no other substitute.
In becoming the food of the rebellious spirit, literature reveals its radical and subversive nature: a literary work will always provoke the minds of its readers whether intentionally or not and no matter how simple its presentation or structure. Literature makes a person think on how they live their life, provides them the values and virtues necessary for living with others in a community and inspires them to be "hungry" for whatever it is that they are lacking. Just through the very act of provoking the mind of an individual to reflect displays the radical and subversive nature of literature because it demonstrates the ability of literature to change the outlook and beliefs of its readers and focus their minds on what lacks, what confuses and what improves. No longer will the reader stay the same or conform to their way of life after experiencing the influence that works of literature may have on them, whether consciously or unconsciously. Take for example a child reading Aesop's fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. In being exposed to the radical nature of reading literature, their motivation to read it, whether from curiosity or requirement, does not matter: the child becomes influenced by Aesop's writings regarding lies and truths and interprets them however they want; thus provoking the child's mind to become radical in their notion of the truth.
Literature is the gear of change in humanity's history. It serves as a constant reminder of the human desire of ideals, the human condition (what, who, how we are...), and the human concept of justice, to individuals who believe that their world, however serving it may be, can be changed and improved.
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