Wallace's Theory and TEWWG

Wallace’s theory is that the value of education is not about the knowledge we intake, rather that education exercises the ways in which we think; practicing the ability to control our thoughts and how we perceive things. Literature supports this theory as it offers the reader perspectives as we attempt to understand how the characters behave. The bond between the reader and the characters are made by finding relations - similar thoughts, personalities or values - and by placing our shoes in the characters who are experiencing the events. We imagine and attempt to understand them and their behavior to indulge ourselves in the world of the book. For example, because the story is told in a third-person-omniscient character, it contributes to giving an objective outlook as well as an in-depth recount of the events of Janie’s (the protagonist’s) past; giving other characters a sense of belonging (reason) allows Hurston to expand and build onto the story’s themes such as love and desire, freedom and independence, race, and gender.  Furthermore, as the novel uses a frame narrative, by presenting Janie’s independence in the beginning, hints the reader to take in a more reflective side when it switches to the past and indicates that there is a lesson to be learned from her marriages that have all had their consequences.