Handing One Another Along: Literature and Social Reflection

About this book

In this book on shaping a meaningful and ethical life the renowned Pulitzer Prizewinning author explores how character courage and human and moral understanding can be fostered by reflecting on the lives of others through stories. Based on Robert Coles legendary course at Harvard this provocative book addresses such questions as Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? It calls on us to become stronger and more aware by reflecting on ourselves and others with the help of great literature and art. Dr. Coles shows how the work of writers artists and thinkers of the past two centuries can inspire our own reflections on the daily lives we lead. He offers a compelling call to venture outside of our own selves and lives and to listen attentively and with growing humanity to the way others get through life. Coles encourages us to examine our own character kindness and complexity by looking carefully at our perceptions of others and by studying the wisdom of authors from Charles Dickens to Flannery OConnor from James Agee to George Orwell and many others. In this influential conversation about empathy and engagement Coles inspires us to seek out deeper meaning in our lives and guides us toward achieving greater clarity strength and richness of understanding amid the moral psychological and social complexities of the modern world.