Economics in Literature: Novels and Narratives

The Story

Why do we read novels and narratives? To explore faraway lands … to “get lost in a good book” … to discover universal truths. To learn about economics? Authors are inspired by many powerful emotions as they write, such as love, grief, and the will to survive, so how would economics ever mesh with these raw emotions?

Consider this…

Jonathan Swift continues to shock today in “A Modest Proposal” with his “solution” for the eighteenth-century economic problem of food scarcity in Ireland; Jane Austen contemplated the early-nineteenth-century economics of marriage in Pride and Prejudice and Emma; during World War II, Anne Frank experienced and wrote in her diary of scarcity and inflation; and James McBride comes to terms with his mother’s ideas of household economics in The Color of Water.

As you turn the pages of your favorite novel or narrative, what economic concepts* do you see playing a role in the story or motivating the characters to behave in certain ways?

Select a novel or narrative — including short stories and short nonfiction essays — that was assigned reading for your high school English, literature, or writing class, and write a brief essay discussing a theme that demonstrates one or more economic principles.

What economic lessons did you learn from the plot? Would you make decisions similar to the characters’ decisions based on what you know about economics? Do you think the author intended to weave these themes into the story?

Remember, don’t assume your audience has read this book or knows the characters or plot you’re discussing. The book must be written in, or translated into, English.

*Examples of economic concepts include:

• Demand — The quantity of a good or service that customers are willing and able to buy.
• Incentive — A factor that encourages people to do something; often
  a monetary reward or the prospect of obtaining one.
• Opportunity Cost — The next-best alternative (or the value of that alternative) that a person gives up in making a choice.
• Scarcity — The lack of enough resources to satisfy human wants; because scarcity is ever present, individuals face an ever-present need to make choices.
• Supply — The quantity of a good or service that producers are willing and able to offer for sale.