The Social Porcupine

Comparison of the books Jayber Crow   by Wendell Berry and Of Human Bondage  by Somerset Maugham. Contains spoilers.  I read Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina back-to-back with the purpose of comparing them. Ironically, I did not plan on comparing the next two books I read, nor did I expect them to be so uncannily similar. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry  is the story of a boy becoming a man and how he immortalizes his suffering. It is a story of community lost due to progressive thought and industrialism, and of the lonely man. It is written to stir the senses toward empathy, perhaps somewhat toward apathy, but the light is tinted. Jayber Crow's story is not happy story, although he falsely believes himself to be happy.  Of Human Bondage  by Somerset Maugham follows the life of Philip Carey, of his search to find meaning and focus, and how he repeatedly succumbs to man's nature to the desire of treasuring suffering above goodness.  I shared most o...

Comparison of the novels Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Contains spoilers By Keturah Lamb, July 9, 2022 Jane Eyre is feisty and not very pretty, so we are told. But we fall in love with a little girl who has a sensitive heart willing to forgive those who torment her and to pray for them. The plot quickly turns away from the wit and misfortune of a Jane Austen type story and we see a foreshadowing of all the dark, sordid things ahead when Jane is locked in a room where she believes to see a red demon.  Anna Karenina makes quite the first impression. She is beautiful, elegant, but above all she sees those around her and all feel known and loved by her. In her first scene we witness Anna missing her son, but she is here to save her brother’s marriage. She exhorts her sister-in-law to forgive. It is a touching dialogue, and despite all that will follow I believe this to be Anna’s greatest work. The brother’s marriage is saved, the wife forg...