Reading Le Clezio: Simulating Empathy for the Marginalized Inhabitants of the Unwelcoming Global Village

The purpose of this study is to explore how the humanities, and specifically literary narratives, can help the American educational system to overcome its alarming, pedagogical deficiencies. In the United States, many educational organizations and boards have realized that the current curriculum is failing to prepare our students on multiple levels. Not only are American pupils underachieving in areas like science and math, but they are also painfully ignorant of the rest of the world. Using both an educational and philosophical approach, this investigation will underscore how a veritable, balanced liberal arts education can stimulate critical thinking, mold minds, foster a meaningful dialogue that will allow individuals to communicate across cultural boundaries, and simulate empathy for the Other. Literature may not provide absolute truths, but it forces people to reflect about the critical issues of their time by posing disconcerting questions about divisive ideologies and the extreme inequalities that are emblematic of the modern world. Given the gravity of complex problems, such as the depletion of the earth's natural resources, pollution, global warming, acute poverty, and clandestine immigration, the human family must learn how to live and work together in peace and harmony. (Contains 7 footnotes.)