Students' Faith in Authorial Intent

Belinda Lothrop's letter to Robert Cormier 25 October 1988

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Belinda explains the class newspaper project for Mrs. Anti's English class on Robert Cormier's novel After the First Death and explains how it was motivated by finding answers regarding the events of the novel. She pleads with Cormier to visit her class so they can ask him questions about his authorial intent.

David Key's letter to Robert Cormier

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David explains how After the First Death was a summer reading project for Mrs. Anti's freshman English class and their newspaper assignment was to write an interview of a character that would reveal further information on Inner Delta.

Denise Concheri's letter to Robert Cormier

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Denise discusses the frequent questions the students had after reading After the First Death and producing a newspaper with interviews of the characters. She mentions her teacher's (Mrs. Anti) diligence in answering their questions. However, she believes that the author holds the answers to a book's meaning. She also expresses the hope that Robert Cormier will visit their class since she, too, wants to be a writer.

Pamela Carpenter's letter to Robert Cormier

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Pamela writes about how Robert Cormier's After the First Death was the best of the four summer novels assigned by Mrs. Anti. She mentions the newspaper project and despite their roles as investigative journalists, they still had points of confusion and questions about the novel that they hope Cormier will address in a class visit.

Rachel Flynn's letter to Robert Cormier

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Rachel shares her enthusiasm for After the First Death and her curiosity regarding points of confusion in the novel, which she hopes he will discuss in a class visit. She mentions the fun the class had producing the newspaper project.

Stephanie Synder's letter to Robert Cormier

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Stephanie formally invites Robert Cormier to visit Mrs. Anti's class and shares her faith in the author as the key to understanding a book's meaning.

RELATED LINKS:

In this short Psychology Today piece, "Why are we always looking for certainty in our lives?" from April 20, 2016, columnist Allison Carmen, author of the book, The Gift of Maybe, outlines ways that people can better balance uncertainty with the need for sufficient clarity with which to move forward. 

In "Unreliability refigured: Narrative in literature and film," Gregory Currie discusses the function of the unreliable text in this article from Winter 1995 that appeared in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.