The writer Norman Maclean wrote “The nearest anyone can come to
finding himself at any given age is to find a story that somehow
tells him about himself.”
Maclean’s observation resonates more and more deeply within me as
I continue to teach and study literature. In other words, good
literature is about us, not about the characters. In fact, I
would submit that any “good” piece of art is “good” because we
connect with it in some meaningful, compelling way. Put simply,
it tells us something about ourselves or the people we have
known.
Choose one piece of fiction and explain how it connects or tells you about yourself or
those you have known.