Beauty in Writing

Francie Nolan used to write about beautiful things but since her father’s death, she has started to write about him, his alcoholism, their poverty, and hunger for a better life. These stories were her way of trying to show that “in spite of his shortcomings, he had been a good father and a kindly man” (p. 321). Francie’s teacher, Miss Garnder, tells her to start writing about different subjects for her class compositions. She questions Francie about the change in her writing and tells her that the subjects of “poverty, starvation, and drunkenness are ugly subjects to choose. We all admit these things exist. But one doesn’t write about them” (p. 321). She continues with, “the writer, like the artist, must strive for beauty always” (p. 321). This made me wonder about what the purpose of a writer is and what obligation to certain topics they have. Is Miss Garnder right that writers should only strive for beauty or is shedding light on the misfortunes of life important? This is a question about what the purpose of art is, an expression of the human condition or beauty alone. But Miss Garnder continues and quotes Keats when she says “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” (p. 321) Francie questions this as well and points out that the things she writes about, although not beautiful in Miss Garnder’s sense, are the truth. But Miss Garnder says they aren’t and that truth is only the more poetic things like the stars, the sunrise, and the birds. Miss Garnder seems to have a flawed definition of truth, or at least a specific and solely poetic one. Overall, this whole exchange between Francie and Miss Garnder leads the reader to think deeply about the obligations that writers have to the greater world.