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This story of man versus man, man versus nature, and man versus himself “rings” with truth. Yes, the use of “man” here is applied to both genders. It could just as easily been “flipped” to the feminine use. After all, whose story is it? Think about this message.

Each time I have read it, it still seems like a biography or autobiography. How can the author get human nature so accurately? How can she know the pulse of living and convey its experience with a freshness and gripping reality? To rip this from the formality of academic writing, the woman knows her stuff. She knows people traits from whom her characters are taken. She knows her country. She knows sugar cane field machetes and the people who wield them.

What is farming? It is planting. It is nurturing. It is reaping what is sown. Context! It is loss and danger and rewards of various kinds. There is uncertainty and yet pursing because that is what it is

Why the reference to bones? Sugar cane and the joint of the fingers have a similar structure. Clearly, the latter is needed to harvest the former.

What is sugar? It comes from massive rods of uncured sweetness. And at what point does sweetness turn sour?

The goal for this course from the very beginning is to provide you with ways of understanding, broadening your scope and wisdom, and helping you establish a baseline for viewing a world where there is no single story. And yet there are basic needs and desires that the vast majority of people seek.

See how often physical and emotional safety is an issue. If I am brave enough to share my body as lover or field hand or servant or ….and my heart and efforts with you, are you kind enough not to injure them? Do you value me? Can you protect me? You, my employer in my often grinding poverty. You, my new found love? You, my parent. You, my priest and doctor? You, my sibling.

Do you see the arbitrariness of life with all its unfairness and unknowing? What courage and generosity of spirit to live! And choosing the honorable way. That is the miracle and wonder of humanity. That is meaning. Remember our study of the WWII Holocaust? Now remember Man’s Search for Meaning.

How often does uncontrollable circumstance impact the characters? How much does poverty place them in places where the options are tragic? And yet, they face adversity with strength and humanity.

Please, please, please read this not with the goal of earning points. Treat yourself to seeing a world that you probably have not seen. Consider how a world-wide depression can place us there. Notice how the curtailment of income can open us to similar circumstances.