Understanding Literature and Life

mortality

• Narrative is an 'ecosystem;' we cannot retrieve our lives; the best we can do to preserve life is to tell—and listen to—stories.

  GC-UNL-RC-053

• 'The Idea of Order at Key West' is a paean to metaphor — the poet recreates the world through language and gains power over the elements themselves.

  GC-UNL-RC-045

education-and-formation

• The bildungsroman poses a central question: Does entrance into society shape us positively—or deform us?

  GC-UNL-RC-062

• Dickens 'earns' a fairy tale ending — Pip admits to Magwitch that he loves his daughter, warranting all the novel's odd connections.

  GC-UNL-RC-064

self-and-identity

• For both Dickens and Brontë, childhood has a reach far beyond itself in shaping the individual.

  GC-UNL-RC-066

• Celie has to be retaught everything—including how to love; her life is reassembled anew.

  GC-UNL-RC-075