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Literature may be said to give people a sense of purpose, dedication, mission, significance.

This, no doubt, is part of what Gilbert Seldes implies when he says of the arts, `` They give form and meaning to life which might otherwise seem shapeless and without sense ''.

Men seem almost universally to want a sense of function, that is, a feeling that their existence makes a difference to someone, living or unborn, close and immediate or generalized.

Feeling useless seems generally to be an unpleasant sensation.

A need so deeply planted, asking for direction, so to speak, is likely to be gratified by the vivid examples and heroic proportions of literature.

The terms `` renewal '' and `` refreshed '', which often come up in aesthetic discussion, seem partly to derive their import from the `` renewal '' of purpose and a `` refreshed '' sense of significance a person may receive from poetry, drama, and fiction.

The notion of `` inspiration '' is somehow cognate to this feeling.

How literature does this, or for whom, is certainly not clear, but the content, form, and language of the `` message '', as well as the source, would all play differentiated parts in giving and molding a sense of purpose.