Marjorie Garber's The Use And Abuse Of Literature

In present literary criticism, there are no identified canons that determine a value for literary works. However, as discussed in Marjorie Garber’s book The Use and Abuse of Literature, she discusses how just as poems and novels do not have any one identified canon that determines a value, there is also no way to determine any right or wrong answers to understanding and interpreting literature. Rather than merely presenting facts, like textbooks or biographies, poems and novels evoke questions, thought, yielding ideas and sparking argument. And one of her most stressed aspect is that “poems and novels give rise to more poems and more novels (Garber 92)”.
Tennessee Williams is able to elicit this response of questions and thought from his audience through a thematic

Brick struggles with accepting his own homosexuality while being morally homophobic and living in a time when American society was not accepting of those of any sexual orientation other than heterosexual. Brick’s sexuality is questioned throughout the play due to the unknown nature of his relationship with his best friend Skipper. Brick’s internal struggle with his sexuality and his feelings for his friend Skipper leads him to a state of depression, only to be worsened by his alcoholism. He is unable to process his homosexual feelings, even when his father alludes to his own sexual relations with men. His sparse words during that conversation with his father reflects his reserved state of mind. He equates homosexuality with dirtiness and disgust. He is offended when his wife and father suggest his relationship with Skipper was one of sexual nature, calling it an “inadmissible thing” (Williams 27). He also proclaims its ridiculousness saying that a man “has one great good true thing in his life. One great good thing which is true!” and his one great, good thing was his friendship with Skipper (Williams