Chapter 18: Whats the Big Idea or Even the Small One?

-Foster opens the chapter with a paragraph that I feel does an

excellent job at summing up the chapter, discussing Mary Shelleys
Frankenstein, which essentially highlights the main issue in these
few paragraphs: the timelessness of the novel and the enduring
traits of the human condition and the questions and ideas at the
heart of the novel raised still resonating with the modern person,
regardless of the trappings of the era or setting.
If one wants to write a novel revolving around ones philosophy, one
must first learn the craft of a story; otherwise, the endeavor may be
pronounced a thorough failure without a single word having been
written. Essentially, what good is a stunning idea in a novel if no one
wants to read it? Furthermore, if one wants to write a truly
successful novel to last the years, ideas and narrative must go
hand-in-hand the well-written narrative keeps you reading to the
end, the well-crafted ideas stay with you long after that end.
Often the greatest pressure on ideation in the novel has come from
suppressed groups or minorities, seeing as their societal status led
to a good deal of new ideas and opinions. How can a work from an
author of a chaotic background not feature at least some elements
experienced in his work? Literature is affected by ideas, which come
from authors, who, in turn are affected by their own history.
Subcategories such as womens issues are, at their core, human
issues, and they simply form one thread of the many issues that
make up fiction. This in turn relates to how the novel is the perfect
medium for capturing individual existence, and is thus in turn the
perfect medium for capturing the experience of the group.
Novels are driven by ideas, and during the genesis of the novel as a
literary form, amongst the elitist, nobility-centered early literary
forms, the first big idea it had was capturing the life of an ordinary
person. Incidentally or perhaps not, that time period also saw the
rise of middle class, liberty, democracy and new ideas: that it was
possible to not be just about class, but about individual members.
This was a huge change not only in literature, but also in the history
of ideas. Fiction is centered on ideas, and the one recurring idea in
novels is the study of the human condition. What does it mean to be
human? How can we conduct our lives to the best effect? This is
demonstrated again and again: a subcategory like womens issues
reflecting human issues, the individuals experience reflecting the
groups. Essentially, in the end, it all comes down to the big,
consistent picture the unchanging nature of the many tenets that
make up humanity.

And in this we see the power of fiction novels allow the reader to
relate to the thoughts, feelings and actions of the characters and in
turn subtly raise provoking questions and highlight truths by making
the core ideas of the novels so much more accessible through that
narrative. So, going back to the title of the chapter, one might ask:
whats the small idea? The answer is simple: its the big one.
I find the relationship between ideas, history and literature is an
interesting one. If your narrative does not interest the reader to pick
up the novel, ideas will not be shared, and it was stated that in
order to interest readers to keep reading novels, genres, ideas and
styles of writing must be constantly changing and evolving. But
what are they to change and evolve with? The present, of course,
perhaps even the future. And it is true, literature does reflect, and is
very much affected by the zeitgeist of an authors era, for example
Fitzgerald and Kerouacs works. However, as previously stated,
literature is affected by ideas, which come from authors, who, in
turn are affected by their own history and background. So is
literature affected by the past or is literature affected by the
present? The material in this chapter puts up a good argument for
both sides. Take again the rise of the novel discussed in this journal.
One could almost say that the new literary form was a manifestation
of the changing attitudes of its time period the rise of the middle
class, liberty and democracy, the growing power of the individual.
But then again, it was also clearly stated that authors write
literature based on ideas in response to the events of the past,
especially if the author is from a minority or an oppressed group. I
feel that both affect literature equally the present brings the need
for the author to write, and in doing that, tackle ideas affected by
his or her past.
But is history affected by literature? At first glance, to an extent, but
really not all that much, but observe the changing trends, patterns,
forms, themes in literature over the centuries, and you get a good
idea of the mindset of the people of those eras. You probably wont
get facts, or figures, but what you will get is their attitudes and
beliefs and how they viewed the world around them. History isnt
just facts, figures or dates I feel that it is greatly affected, even
made by the character of individuals not just world leaders or
kings or generals but the civilians, citizens and peasants too, and
literature does an excellent job of documenting and shaping that, for
after all, it is the study of the human condition, and in that way, yes
history is affected by literature.
This chapter is also especially applicable to The Joy Luck Club,
seeing as Amy Tan wrote the novel based on her own history and
interactions with her own mother it has, in fact, been said to be
partly autobiographical. The craft of the story is also well-suited to

the ideas Tan tries to bring across, for example the contrast between
the mothers and the daughters is well conveyed by the stylistic
difference in the writing between the stories from the mothers and
daughters viewpoints. It is also interesting to consider how well The
Joy Luck Club represents mothers and their daughters as a whole,
given that it only has 4 first-gen immigrant mother-second-gen
daughter pairs to discuss, but I feel that it does quite a good job of
it. Of course, not all (immigrant) mothers and their daughters are
quite as dysfunctional as the pairs in the novel, but the overarching
ideas and themes featured identity, loss, generation gap,
communication, culture, the power (or lack thereof) of belief are
communicated well, and do ring true.

Alison Tan (2)

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