Originally written as a textbook for a university-level rhetoric course, it combines a selection of essays, short stories, poems, novellas, and plays--all of them representing extremely different perspectives on the various facets of life. Rackman and Bertagnoli help the reader perform an in-depth analysis of the authors' works. I found it to be an excellent example of how we process individual thought processes and interpretations. It really did NOT seem like a textbook. The various writings were thought-provoking and unique.