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Stoner

Stoner is a farm boy who is sent to University of Missouri by his parents to learn agriculture.  It's a big deal--no one has even considered university before.  Stoner is a dutiful student until he takes English literature and is ridiculed for his failure to analyze a Shakespeare sonnet.  He, unknown to the professor, has actually been moved by Shakespeare. His life is changed--he becomes an English major.

WWI breaks out. He does not return to the farm but instead takes a teaching job while studying for his M.A. and Ph.D.  USA enters the war but Stoner, unlike most young men at the university, doesn't enlist. Instead he stays and finishes his Ph.D.

Teaching:  He feels the literature deeply, but he finds he cannot communicate this to students. Unable to formulate.

Other things:  Stoic work ethic.  Work and study . . . and nothing else.    Separation from parents physically and intellectually causes pain to his soul . . .
                     
     

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