Some Final Thoughts:
Be as brave as Achilles, as loyal as Hector, and as dedicated as Aeneas. Walk conscientiously the stright road of life so you never awake to find yourself in a dark wood of confusion and regret, heading for the Inferno. But if you do, remember there's a way out - it depends on you.
Remember what Creon and Antigone learned: fate does not rule your destiny; you make your own choices, and in the end you must take responsibility for them. Remember what Lear learned: love is not measured by words or money, and Daisy Miller: appearances do count.
Discover the dark places of your own heart so you can triumph over them. Don't, like Sethe, dwell on what is past and can't be changed. Exorcise your ghosts and get on with it. Value hard work and tradition as Okonkwo did, but remember what Achebe taught us: compromise and tolerance are important to man and to society.
And finally, don't, like Ivan Ilyich, waste your life in striving only for that which is pleasant and proper. Be instead, like Robert Frost, a swinger of birches. Climb the black branches up a snow white trunk toward heaven, but remember that "earth's the right place for love."
Franceane Bunner
May, 1995