While I Was Gone was written in the first person. Sue Miller chose to write the novel from this perspective to get the reader more into Jo's character. Sue could not have titled the book While I Was Gone if she had written in third person. If a reader reads a novel that is in first person they feel connecte

d with that character. When something bad happened to Jo, the reader felt her pain. Some readers may have had emotions towards Jo that weren't what Jo was feeling. First person is also easier for writers to get into. Sue Miller only had to tell the story from Jo's perspective and did not have to worry about anything beyond her vision. This was what made the readers connect with Jo so much.

This novel was written to set people thinking. It should disturb them, in a good way. More questions should be raised from an interesting book than should be answered. A book is a way of speculating about life, a way of asking yourself questions that you hope reverberate in the reader. The reader should ask himself questions, maybe even answer them for himself.

On Jo's way home to her former husband she ran into a nice man, Daniel. Jo was attracted to him, but she was still legally married. Once she returned home, she left her husband, this time legally and for good. She got her doctorate in veterinary medicine. A few years later, Jo still thought about Daniel. She looked him up, and within a year they were married. The two of them had three girls. The girls grew up, moved out, and it was just the two of them. Everything was going fine in their lives until Jo began to feel restless.

Throughout Jo's life she ran. She ran away as a child, she ran away as a young adult, and at this point in her life she just wanted to run again. It seemed like the affair was just her unknowing way. Jo and Eli were similar. They both had something that they were holding in. They were going to explode if they didn't tell someone. They both made a mistake; they shared the information with the person it would hurt the most. Everyone has things they need to think about and some of those things are better kept private. Jo was someone who hadn't looked at her life with a great deal of care; she was a person of action. She was a very decisive person. That was what made Jo appealing. It was also what made it hard for people around her who cared for her deeply, to feel close to her at times. Jo was a secretive person, though she didn't do it on purpose. Her theory was that if it happened in the past, it was not important enough for her to share with the people in her life. She thought the information would only hurt the people she loved and completely unnecessary. Her loved ones felt differently when they found out about her past. They felt alienated and deceived. It took Jo a while to recover from the mournful eyes of her loved ones.

The novel began with Jo and her husband on a boat. Every Monday they took a day off together. Since their three daughters had grown up, they had time to themselves. Her husband, Daniel, was fishing and she was sitting in the boat relaxing. All of a sudden she got an uneasy feeling and didn't really know how to name it. "I was abruptly and most intensely, sharply aware of all the aspects of life surrounding me, and yet of feeling neither part of it nor truly separate from it. Somehow impartial, unattached- an observer. Yet sentient of it all. Deeply sentient, in fact. But to no apparent purpose." (4) Jo continued to have this feeling. She felt content with her life, yet she wanted something more exciting. Jo could live with her life, but that's not what she wanted from life, she wanted excitement. When Eli reappeared in Jo's life she saw an opportunity for a new chapter in her life to begin. He made her feel like she was alive again. With Daniel it had always been the same thing for years and she was craving something new. . . someone new.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2529
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)