The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had

by Susan Wise Bauer

The first time you read through a novel, you should look for answers to three very simple questions: Who are these people? What happens to them? And how are they different afterward?

Write the title of the book, the author’s name, and the date of composition on the top of a blank page. Underneath, note any facts learned from the book’s cover or introduction that will help you read the book as the author intended.

Keep a list of characters as you read.

Briefly note the main event of each chapter.

Make initial notes on passages that seem interesting.

Distinguish these notes in some way from your content summaries; write them in the journal margins, on a different page, or in a different-color ink.

Give the book your own title and subtitle.

Who is the central character in this book? 2. What is the book’s most important event? If you have difficulty answering these questions, ask yourself: Is there some point in the book where the characters change? Does something happen that makes everyone behave differently?

Is this novel a “fable” or a “chronicle”?

If this novel is set in our world—a chronicle—how does the writer show us reality?

If the writer presents a fantastic world, what is his or her intent?

Is the novel primarily realistic, but with a few fantastic elements?

What does the central character (or characters) want? What is standing in his (or her) way? And what strategy does he (or she) pursue in order to overcome this block?

Who is telling you this story?

Which point of view does the writer choose to use? What does he gain and lose through it?

Where is the story set?

What style does the writer employ?

1. Choose one long paragraph and count the words in each sentence. What’s the shortest sentence? The longest? What’s the average number of words in a sentence? 2. In the same paragraph, count the number of nouns and verbs which have three or more syllables. 3. How many nouns in the paragraph refer to concrete things (people, landscape, animals, clothing, food, etc.), and how many refer to abstract ideas? 4. How many verbs in the passage describe physical activity (run, jump, climb, blush) and how many describe mental activity (worry, anticipate, rejoice)?11

Images and metaphors. Is any particular image repeated again and again?

Beginnings and endings. Now take a moment to examine the opening and closing scenes. The beginning of a novel should draw you immediately into the story’s central problem.

What sort of ending does the book have? The resolution that Gardner describes shows a certain faith that we can triumph over our world, control our existence by discovering rules we can follow in order to bring success (or break to court disaster). The ending of logical exhaustion, on the other hand, shows that we are trapped, powerless, condemned to repeat the same actions over and over again.

Do you sympathize with the characters? Which ones, and why?

Does the writer’s technique give you a clue as to her “argument”—her take on the human condition?

Is the novel self-reflective?

Did the writer’s times affect him?

Is there an argument in this book?

Do you agree?

Unlike earlier writers, Augustine sees decisions and thoughts, not big external events, as the true landmarks of a life; like the hero of an ancient epic, he journeys toward a new shore, but his journey is an internal trek from corruption to holiness. Unlike earlier writers, Augustine puts his private self at the center of the universe; his story is not about a Roman, or a North African, or even a church member, but about Augustine, an individual whose hidden, private life has enormous supernatural significance. Unlike earlier writers, Augustine sees a single moment of his life—his conversion—as the pivot around which all else spins. Choosing a meaning for the past, relating all else to it, describing the inner life of the private self, finding that “watershed” event of the past that made the self what it is today: all of these become, after Augustine, the conventions of the autobiography.

In your first reading of an autobiography (the “grammar stage” reading), you’re asking a simple question: What happened?

Remember to mark in some way—by turning down a page, or making a note in your reading journal—passages that seem to carry some extra significance.

Look at the title, cover, and table of contents.

What are the central events in the writer’s life?

For each chapter, ask yourself: Out of all of these happenings, which two are the most important?

As you list these events, try also to note what makes them unique—not “Took first job” but “Began work as a lawyer, hated the job at first.”

What historical events coincide—or merge—with these personal events?

Give the book your own title and subtitle.

What pattern has the writer discovered in his or her own life?

What is the theme that ties the narrative together?

First, determine whether the autobiography is primarily spiritual or skeptical

What is this theme? Is it “relational,” describing the writer’s slow resolution (or dissolution) of relationships with parents, siblings, lovers? Is it “oppositional,” presenting the life as a conflict between two different possible choices?

Is it “heroic,” casting the writer in the mold of a mythic hero or heroine, conquering difficulties and overcoming obstacles? Is it “representational,” transforming the writer into a symbol for all other men or women who share the same condition?

Or is it “historical,” describing a historical movement (the emancipation of women, for example) through the lens of one writer’s experience?

Where is the life’s turning point? Is there a “conversion”?

Is there a chapter in which important events seem to cluster? This cluster might occur just before or just after a transition point. Can you find the key words “For the first time”?

For what does the writer apologize? In apologizing, how does the writer justify?

What is the model—the ideal—for this person’s life?

What is the end of the life: the place where the writer has arrived, found closure, discovered rest?

Reread the final chapter of the autobiography. Look for statements of conclusion, which often (though not always) are introduced with “time words” such as so or from then on or now or during.

Now revisit your first question: What is the theme of this writer’s life?

What broader conclusions does the writer draw about the group he or she belongs to (men, women, immigrants, activists), or even more broadly, about human nature in general?