Literary notes about problem (AI summary)
The word "problem" in literature serves a remarkably versatile role, oscillating between concrete puzzles and abstract dilemmas. At times it denotes specific challenges or puzzles—whether a tricky mathematical conundrum ([1], [2], [3]), a narrative obstacle in detective work ([4], [5], [6]), or a question of social policy such as racism or economic strains ([7], [8])—and at other moments it becomes a metaphor for the inherent complexities and difficulties of life ([9], [10]). Authors use the term to encapsulate both the intellectual intricacies of philosophical inquiry, as seen in discussions about knowledge and reason ([11], [12]), and to spotlight more immediate, personal issues that propel character development or social critique ([13], [14]). This multifaceted deployment of "problem" underscores its capacity to shape narrative tension while prompting deeper reflection on the human condition.
- This is an extension of the well-known problem of the "Fifteen Schoolgirls," by Kirkman.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - Can you find the solution of the problem that gives the lowest possible sum of digits in the common product?
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - 261.—THE MONK AND THE BRIDGES.— solution The problem of the Bridges may be reduced to the simple diagram shown in illustration.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - “It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won’t speak to me for fifty minutes.”
— from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - A bright idea, however, shot into my mind, and the problem was solved.
— from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - I assure you that your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has come my way for some months.
— from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois - Imports of food, namely, wheat, barley, coffee, eggs, rice, maize, and the like, present a different problem.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes - And if life be, as it surely is, a problem to me, I am no less a problem to life.
— from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde - The problem of the value of truth presented itself before us—or was it we who presented ourselves before the problem?
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - I will begin with what is driest, and the first thing I shall take will be the problem of Substance.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James - Above all the problem, that here there is a problem before us,—and
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - Anne had been sitting up in bed, the better to wrestle with the problem of her exact opinion of Billy Andrews.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery - Now it was the problem of slavery; again the problem of government, or commerce, or education,—whatever touched the lives of men.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden
