mary van milligen

In my classroom, I’ve used several novels throughout the years as a catalyst to teach reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.  We examine the literary excellence of the pieces, but since most of my students opt not to major in English, I use the content of the novels to inspire an assessment that can be useful and practical to their lives in the future.  But everyone still recognizes that there are certain lines from the texts that we study that linger, drop their poignancy into the fabric of our beings, and resonate with us far after we’ve read the text. The powerful writing takes a hold of us even when we’re possibly resistant.

The lines written by Ken Kesey in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest “All I know is this: nobody’s very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down” jumps in my head unfortunately all too often.  I think of this when I’m scrolling through social media or happen to glance at the comments section of a recently published news article online.  I want to prove Kesey wrong, but there is a resounding truth to the comment.  I’m sure you’ve all seen it as well.  I’m positive I’m not the only one that feels that he or she must walk with a critical defense shield from time to time.

One of my absolutely favorite novels that made several appearances in my classroom was the glorious and beautifully written words of Zora Neale Hurston and her acclaimed work Their Eyes Were Watching God.  The opening lines dance in my brain often; Hurston writes:

Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.

Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.

These words speak to me even though they were written so long ago, and as much as we’ve progressed in our definition of gender roles, I feel this sentiment is accurate.

And finally, I chronically reflect back on another work that captured me with its direct openness. It isn’t a classic piece of literature, but it’s a lesson we all must absorb.  It comes from Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  He didactically shares“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we’ll never know most of them. But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.” I love this moment of simplistic acceptance.

So, what lines have glued to who you are?  What words wiggle themselves with wisdom in your mind?  I hope you have some.  I’d love to hear what remains within you.