I. Critical Analysis

After reading the chapter entitled "Summary: Theory for Beginners" in the book An Introduction to Criticism: Literature/Film/Culture by Michael Ryan, the reader is made aware that criticism is an important part of human development. As Michael Ryan explains, criticism can give a person more insight about the world which surrounds them (Ryan 161). The purpose of this chapter is to bring together the factors of cultural studies and to explain that critical analysis of works created by writers and artist is an important part of human culture. There seems to be two factors to consider when thinking about criticism and cultural studies. The first factor deals with how humans should be critical of narrative stories and the second factor deals with questioning self- motivated perceptions.

             As Ryan says,"cultural images influence our behavior, ideas change history, and spoken words have force"(Ryan 161). Humans have existed for thousand of years and we have created cultural images since the time of primitive man. We have developed many written languages. Narrative stories have been recorded in each of these languages and passed from one generation to another. They have become cultural images that influence our behavior. In Ryan's opinion, we should be critical of these stories. He says that if a person begins by assuming that narratives like national stories are inaccurate, they are beginning in the right place (Ryan 169). One must agree that our understanding has evolved with each generation and cultural norms dealing with the laws that govern our actions and with the civil institutions like money and commerce that insures our survival in a civilized world should be given critical analysis. The idea of wealth, power, and gender identity are influenced by cultural images. The criticism of cultural norms is not to destroy them, but it is to study them for justification. 

            When one thinks about complex cultural issues, their perspectives need to be given validations as well. Ryan repeatedly uses the word "terrorism" to illustrate his point that a single word can influence the behavior of entire nations (Ryan 162,163,164,176). Self- righteousness is easily used to distort cultural issues and to make one's own perspective seem right and their actions justified. Ryan illustrated how President George W. Bush spoke about terrorism as if everything he said was true because of his perspective (Ryan 164). A cultural issue like terrorism is connected with other issues and it is difficult to separate them into small fragments. One must agree that criticism can help to break down one's own perspective about the world and allow for the consideration of other views. We begin to question our self- motivation and look more intensely at how cultural factors influence our behavior. 

              The factors about cultural issues outlined by Ryan and his views on criticism do give a person more perspective about the world around them. Ryan tells the reader that artist and writers often look beyond the erroneous perspectives that conform to an authoritarian government and imagine alternates (Ryan 180). It is important that one critically analysis these works and evaluate their perspective of cultural issues since criticism is a way of cultural evolution.