Help with interpretation of a phrase

It means that by reading books we can learn about the lives of other people. That can help us understand ourselves.

In what ways can it help me understand about myself?

Read some books and you will find out. Or maybe not. Is this an essay assignment?

No it's not. If it had been, I would have asked my teacher for assistance, as it would have been far more helpful. It's a quote that I've been challenged to comment on as part of an assignment I'm doing in school for an English class. What I'm required to do is, given my book that I've been instructed to read, I have to show examples that have connections to this phrase.

Anyways, I just lack the literary skills to create a connection between literature and the idea of understanding about myself and people in general. And yes, part of it has to do with the fact that I usually stay away from reading books, but you don't have to be so unkind.

What is the book about? What challenges do the characters face? What problems must they deal with?

Once you have the specifics, try to make them general. For example, in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, the old man catches a huge fish and must get it back to shore. Sharks start to attack and eat the fish which is tied to the side of the man's small boat. These are the specifics. In general, you could say that the man is confronted by and is battling forces of nature. He's fighting to keep what's his. He's dealing with something he has little control over. There are any number of interpretations for what the man is dealing with.

Then take the more general interpretation and apply it to yourself. Have you ever had to deal with forces greater than you? Have you ever had to deal with someone or something trying to take something away from you? How did the old man cope? What does his strength teach you about you how you have handled or might handle a similar situation.

Sorry, chauncynzogbia, if I seemed dismissive. I agree with Roberta, that reading about characters in literature can give you insights into what it means to be a person, to hope, fear, love, hate, nurture, to feel.

What is the book that you have to read?

The book is Bel Canto. Perhaps two of you are familiar with the novel.

I already have done a research regarding the author's background, read and explained to my teacher a whole bunch of her interviews, and written an essay regarding the book. This is the final portion of the assignment.

This is something I'm to verbally present tomorrow, and I have been trying to get some ideas noted down the last few hours. However, I still can't figure out what watching the lives of others through their eyes can possibly explain to me about me or my life. It's also not as if there is a character in a novel that resembles me either.

Two of you have been really trying, and I really appreciate it because this, after all, is my work and not yours, but your responses hasn't been what I've been looking for. For example, the series of troubles the Old Man went through and how I would have dealed with a similar situation has very little relevance to understanding and discovering me. Why? Because it's something I would have done cautiously.

The response "characters in literature can give you insights into what it means to be a person, to hope, fear, love, hate, nurture, to feel and etc." is a great answer. But the question I've been dying to answer (and failing miserably) is why? and how? Only if that can be answered, I can further explain by giving examples, and eventually finish the rest of the note.

What I have thus far is my own definition of the quote, to which I couldn't explain any further if I was asked to do so, and a short paragraph on the relation between the phrase and what the author has stated in one of her interviews.

Please remember that I'm doing a verbal presentation so the language level of the writing is really low.

A definition of the phrase
Since we cannot be everywhere and meet everyone, through reading we have the opportunity to experience many events and meet new people. Along the way, we learn through the events and different set of people. The more we learn about others and through others, the more we experience life and therefore, we learn more about ourselves. Reading is the door to the wider world.

Author relation
In an interview with Bel Canto's author, Ann Patchett revealed that she had known nothing about opera prior to writing the novel. In order to write this book, she had to commit herself into researching about opera, reading books regarding opera, listening to opera and attending operas. By the time she was finished with the novel, she began to have a deep interest in opera. In the various interviews I've found, she was quoted as saying she absolutely fell in love with opera, and she felt like she had learned a second language. Through the process of writing a book, she had discovered a new interest that now makes part of what she is. This is one way where literature can help us understand ourselves.

Because it is terrible and it would need a lot of re-touching, I have not yet decided if I'm going to use the author relation as part of my presentation.

Chauncy--

Welcome to A2K.

You might say that while you couldn't identify with any of the characters in the novel you were able to identify with the enlarged persona that Ms. Pratchett developed after her research on opera.

Do you feel that this English assignment is forcing your mind to grow?

Grow? Probably not.

Age, rot, and overused might be the correct terms to apply in this situation.

I haven't read the book, but I just read a review of the book:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0DC103CF932A05756C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

Opera is peripheral to what this is about. I'd leave out the author info. Without having read it, I can only guess that it's about people coping in frightening and dire circumstances. About resourcefulness. About how beauty can bring people together.

What can you learn that would apply to your own life? How did different characters react? How did they ease the situation? How did they feel? What did they do? You can learn from different reactions. Learn what worked and what didn't. See how people interact.

I don't expect you to be in a house taken over by terrorists. That's irrelevant. You will be in situations that frighten you. That make you uncomfortable. That make you feel trapped. How the characters reacted to these situations can teach you what works and what doesn't. They can give you insight into human nature.

You have to give a presentation to your teacher. Doesn't that frighten you a little? Make you feel trapped? How will you cope?

I haven't read the book, so I hope I'm not way off the mark here.

You need be less literal. You need to see the generalities. Turn the specifics to something bigger.

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"Literature gives us opportunities to see into the lives of others. That gift can be the key to understanding ourselves."


This quote seems to think that literature gives us opportunites and those opportunities are 'gifts."

Sometimes a gift is not appreciated until later. Then we see how very valuable it is.