For Esmé with Love and Squalor Literature and Writing Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
| Quote #1 Nobody's aiming to please, here. More really to edify, to instruct. (2) |
This is kind of the purpose of literature in this story – in essence, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The narrator implies that it is more important to "edify," to enlighten, rather than to make up a nice story.
| Quote #2 I'd packed all my belongings into my barrack bag, including a canvas gas-mask container full of books I'd brought over from the Other Side. (The gas mask itself I'd slipped through a porthole of the Mauretania some weeks earlier, fully aware that if the enemy ever did use gas, I'd never get the damn thing on in time). (4) |
This quote reveals a lot about the narrator – to him, books are more important than a theoretically life-saving device like a gas mask.
| Quote #3 "May I inquire how you were employed before entering the Army?" Esmé asked me. |
Though the narrator goes on to admit (kind of) that he's unpublished as of yet, we see that writing is a kind of state of mind – in order to become a writer, one has to envision oneself a writer first.
