I recently read one of John Steinbeck’s greatest works, The Grapes of Wrath, and I was discussing it with friends over dinner. One of them asked, “Why do some literary pieces remain evergreen?” I proposed that it may be because those works remain central to human emotions and behavior. Every work should be understood in its own context and time, but what makes it classic is its sheer depiction of how humans have felt throughout the ages. If that is true, endurance is almost a formula: set a story firmly in its own moment, yet build it on the parts of human nature that have never changed. A few examples show what I mean.
One of the most powerful examples of this unchanged human experience is the trauma and hope of migration. The 1930s were marked by a global economic crisis, and conditions in the United States were not good either. In that context, Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath introduces a family that is seeking better opportunities and moving from place to place. Migration is the novel’s central theme, and it has never been easy, always marked by tragedy and a search for a brighter future. I am from a family of migrants. My grandfather moved from Indian Punjab to Pakistani Punjab in the wake of the 1947 partition for reasons unrelated to Steinbeck’s theme, but the journey's harshness remained the same. Moreover, my father migrated from Pakistan to Japan, and I am also in the phase of migration. That theme appealed to me more than anything else in the book. Today, the younger generation is moving in search of better opportunities. They are all the Joads, and the mental pressure they are carrying along with them is their truck.
While migration is an external struggle, classic literature also explores our internal monsters. Jealousy is also part of human behavior and has been a central theme in literature. Nearly every religious scripture mentions Cain and Abel as an archetype of jealousy. Likewise, in the Shahnama, Firdousi draws on jealousy. When the King distributes his vast empire among his three sons, the elder sons, Salm and Tur, grow jealous of the youngest, Iraj. In the end, the elder sons kill the youngest brother, and the empire disintegrates into chaos. The Shahnama is an evergreen work that still captivates readers to this day. The Bhagavad Gita also addresses the notion of jealousy in its philosophical discourse.
What makes it classic is its sheer depiction of how humans have felt throughout the ages. If that is true, endurance is almost a formula: set a story firmly in its own moment, yet build it on the parts of human nature that have never changed.
Writers have not only focused on our flaws but also on our ability to love another human being. Love is another theme and a central tenet of being human, and it commands attention the world over. The story of Layla and Majnun is centuries old, but it is retold every now and then in a different guise. Some call it Romeo and Juliet, some Sassi and Punni, some Sohni and Mahiwal, some Heer and Ranjha. Each culture has its own name for the same tale, and all remain evergreen stories of love. Mawlana Rumi and Bhagat Kabir are widely studied for their verses on love. They loved God and pursued that love along mystical paths, yet the verses they and others wrote carry broad global appeal. Moreover, in Urdu poetry, when someone reads about nights of longing or unfulfilled promises, it can feel as if the poet is speaking to this day and age. Zikar uss parivash ka aur phir bayan apna (the mention of that fairy-faced beloved, and then my own way of telling it) by Mirza Ghalib has traveled to the world of Faiz, where he pens his Raqeeb Se because their emotions have remained the same.
If love binds us together, the will to resist pressure is the counterforce that never ages, no less present in the face of social, political, or religious repression. In the 17th century, Guy Fawkes stood up against what he saw as his oppressors; whether we remember him as a traitor or a rebel, the impulse to resist is the same. While literature shaped by such events may depart from the historical record, the ideas that germinated from them are eternal. Such pieces give people hope when everything turns dark. World War II literature, like Anne Frank’s Diary and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, is still widely read.
Whether exploring love, rebellion, jealousy of kings, or the heavy footsteps of migrants, such stories endure because they act as mirrors. When a reader opens a book, the story should feel personal, and that can only happen because our innate emotions are the same. The feelings people have had during migrations have remained the same since time immemorial, especially love. The recipe for a work that endures is simple to name and hard to achieve: root the story in its own time while exploring the range of human behavior that hasn’t evolved. We are all migrating, longing for love, seeking certainty, and trying to find peace with ourselves.