Introduction George and Lennie’s tragedy in Of Mice and Men begins with friendship, but gradually becomes something much heavier.George is not simply Lennie’s friend. He becomes his protector, caregiver, problem-solver, safety plan, and eventually the person forced to make an unbearable decision about Lennie’s future.That leaves us with a question that … [Read more...] about Of Mice and Men: 5 Modern Stories About Love, Care and Responsibility
Family
The Grapes of Wrath Today: 5 Modern Stories About “I” and “We”
Introduction John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath about one displaced family, but he was never writing about only one family.The Joads lose land, work, stability, privacy, and certainty. Yet the deeper injury is harder to measure. Again and again, they are forced to ask whether poverty changes what a person is worth, whether protecting one’s … [Read more...] about The Grapes of Wrath Today: 5 Modern Stories About “I” and “We”
The Grapes of Wrath Explained: 5 Questions Readers Still Ask
Introduction Few American novels have been praised, attacked, banned, taught, argued over, and reinterpreted as intensely as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.It is easy to see why.On the surface, the novel follows the Joad family as they leave Oklahoma during the Great Depression and travel west in search of work. Their farm is gone. Their security … [Read more...] about The Grapes of Wrath Explained: 5 Questions Readers Still Ask
The Grapes of Wrath: When Does “Me” Become “We”?
Introduction What happens when a family does everything it was told to do, works hard, stays together, keeps moving, and still cannot find a secure place in the world?John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath begins with one family losing its land, but it gradually asks a much larger question.At first, the Joads think in the language of survival.Our land.Our … [Read more...] about The Grapes of Wrath: When Does “Me” Become “We”?
Convenience Store Woman: 5 American Stories About Marriage and Freedom
Introduction Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman begins with a deceptively simple question: what if a person is content with a life that society considers incomplete?Keiko Furukura does not seem to need marriage, status, ambition, or conventional adulthood in the way people expect. Her life forces readers to ask whether “normal” is really a truth, or … [Read more...] about Convenience Store Woman: 5 American Stories About Marriage and Freedom
Convenience Store Woman: Is the New Normal Really Normal?
Introduction Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman begins with a woman who does not fit the conventional picture of adulthood.Keiko Furukura is unmarried.She has no children.She has spent eighteen years working in the same convenience store.Her family worries.People around her assume she should want something different.Part One asked whether Keiko should … [Read more...] about Convenience Store Woman: Is the New Normal Really Normal?
Social Health Stories: 5 Ways We Lost Our Sense of Belonging
Introduction We usually think loneliness means having nobody.But what if that is not always true?A person can have loving family, longtime friends, coworkers, messages arriving throughout the day, and hundreds of online connections, yet still lack something harder to name: social health.Inspired by the ideas explored through Kasley Killam, Robert Putnam, … [Read more...] about Social Health Stories: 5 Ways We Lost Our Sense of Belonging
Social Health: Why Modern Life Is Making Us Lonely
Introduction Modern life has given us extraordinary freedom, convenience, mobility, and access to people across distance. Yet many people still feel strangely alone.Kasley Killam, Robert Putnam, Sherry Turkle, and Priya Parker approach this problem from different directions. Killam looks at social health. Putnam studies the decline of civic life and social … [Read more...] about Social Health: Why Modern Life Is Making Us Lonely
The Nickel Boys: 5 Modern Stories About Truth, Trauma and Hope
Introduction What happens after we learn that courage alone is not enough?Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys gave us Elwood and Turner, two boys who respond to injustice in radically different ways. Elwood believes truth must be spoken. Turner believes survival requires knowing when truth can get you hurt.The scholar conversation pushed those questions … [Read more...] about The Nickel Boys: 5 Modern Stories About Truth, Trauma and Hope
5 Modern Stories Inspired by Circe by Madeline Miller
Introduction What happens when the defenses that once protected us begin shaping the lives we are trying to save?These five modern stories were inspired by themes explored in Madeline Miller’s Circe, but they are not retellings of the novel. Each story moves into a different contemporary life and magnifies one emotional problem beneath the mythology.A … [Read more...] about 5 Modern Stories Inspired by Circe by Madeline Miller