Literary Significance & Criticism
This novel can be most clearly understood as a commentary on globalization via a fictional account of the effects of the Earth's expanding political, economic and social influence over human inhabited planets. Barnes appears to suggest that those most harmed by globalization are the ones least willing to change in response.
Read more about this topic: A Million Open Doors
Famous quotes containing the words literary, significance and/or criticism:
“It is a good lessonthough it may often be a hard onefor a man who has dreamed of literary fame, and of making for himself a rank among the worlds dignitaries by such means, to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognized, and to find how utterly devoid of all significance, beyond that circle, is all that he achieves, and all he aims at.”
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (18041864)
“To grasp the full significance of life is the actors duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.”
—Marlon Brando (b. 1924)
“It is ... pathetic to observe the complete lack of imagination on the part of certain employers and men and women of the upper-income levels, equally devoid of experience, equally glib with their criticism ... directed against workers, labor leaders, and other villains and personal devils who are the objects of their dart-throwing. Who doesnt know the wealthy woman who fulminates against the idle workers who just wont get out and hunt jobs?”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877?)