12th Grade
Short Story
680L
Here We Aren't, So Quickly
Jonathan Safran Foer
2010
Passage Summary:
In this avant-garde short story, a man reflects on his life and his relationship with his family.
When and How to Pair:
Introduce this text after students have read chapter 22, to address topics of mortality and love as the ultimate enemy of time and purpose. In this chapter, Augustus has died and Hazel thinks back to the phrase: “without pain, we couldn’t know joy.” Foer’s piece uses form to communicate how quickly time can pass and how jumbled and complicated relationships and life can be. A lot happens in this chapter, from a funeral to a visit from Van Houten. Both texts ultimately conclude that love is worth the pain and struggle that it entails. Ask students to discuss the phrase “without pain, we couldn’t know joy.” How does Foer’s piece address this concept? What does each author project as the worth of love?