What Makes a Classic a Classic?

By: Athena Meno

It is universally known that a story with enough tenacity, gusto, and with enough gumption to withstand the test of time is thereby called a classic.

But my question is: What makes a classic a classic? Is a classic found in the tragic death of two star- crossed lovers who died because of their family differences? Is it found in the life of a boy, who flies with the clouds at his heels, and at times risks his life to fool a notorious pirate with a hook? Or is a classic found in an attic where a girl, no older than her teens, hides away in order to avoid the harmful fate of a death camp? Certainly that is how those classics became such, but does it stand the same for all?

Can the struggles, of love, youth, and survival really be the hidden messages all writers strive for in order to truly obtain, for their stories, the title “Classic.”

Although I must say that the stories mentioned (which are: Romeo & Juliet, Peter Pan, and The Diary of Anne Frank) are in fact magnificent classic tales, I do believe that what makes their stories and all other classics is far beyond the story alone, but the characters and the message within the story that make it perpetual.

I believe what captures the wide-spread high acclaim of the stories we call classics, is how it mirrors mankind by portraying humans at their best and their worst. Classics tell tales of the struggles of man and how far people could go to achieve what they believed was impossible, what was true, and what was right. It gives us an idea of the lifestyle that people had to live through at a certain time frame, with or without complaint and how they adapted to a situation that was presented to them. It tells us tales of dreams, wishes, memories, hopes, and fears that people go through almost every day.

Classics also have a wide-spread amount of various characters, with their own stories to tell, and can practically walk and talk all on their own. Characters such as the ones described, stay with readers long after they had finished those last few pages. And who truly live on; not only in pages and texts, but in the life and mind of those select few who cared to listen to their tale.

That is what truly makes a classic a classic; a story with characters, which live beyond their pages, and message that, is worthwhile for all ages to come. It is in this that writers try to recapture what so many knew before them so that they too can be a writer of a classic.