Why is the novel so important?
In my humble opinion, novels teach us that we are not alone. Through narration we see into the minds of other people. Authors must have great empathy; setting their views aside in order to understand the characters they create. Their characters will represent real people.
Jane Austen not only pushed the boundaries of how society views women, but also men in her novels. This conversation connects to how we define "self." It is not something born in isolation. Self is defined from infancy through the context we are born into. There is no clean slate. Or is there? Sharon Olds investigates this idea in her poem "First Hour."
Directions: Read the following poem by Sharon Olds, and briefly respond to her complicated notion of self. Please use direct lines from the poem in order to explain how she made you feel about the idea of self.
First Hour
Sharon Olds
That hour, I was most myself. I
had shrugged
my mother slowly off, I lay there
taking my first breaths, as if
the air of the room was blowing me
like a bubble. All I had to do
was go out along the line of my
gaze and back,
feeling gravity, silk, the
pressure of the air a caress,
smelling on
myself her creamy blood. The air
was softly touching my skin and
mouth,
entering me and drawing forth the
little
sighs I did not know as mine.
I was not afraid. I lay in the
quiet
and looked, and did the wordless
thought,
my mind was getting its oxygen
direct, the rich mix by mouth.
I hated no one. I gazed and gazed,
and everything was interesting, I
was
free, not yet in love, I did not
belong to anyone, I had drunk
no milk yet—no one had
my heart. I was not very human. I
did not
know there was anyone else. I lay
like a god, for an hour, then they
came for me
and took me to my mother.
