Posted 4/2/2016 5:53 PM (GMT 0)
ISU-CycloneFans' reference to Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage" (published 1895) is a very appropriate one, because the writing style and plot of this particular novel have wonderful allegorical qualities.
It's the story of an inexperienced, naive young man who as a newly enlisted Union soldier is thrown into his first battle during the Civil War. He at first undergoes terror and panic and runs from the battlefield, but then, through self-evaluation and determination, gets the chance to redeem himself in another battle, does so, and emerges as a brave soldier and as a much more mature man.
I should think the allegorical potential of this novel applies rather well to the cancer situation that we face. PCa becomes the battlefield, which may terrify us due to our inexperience with it, causing us first to run in terror from it, in an allegorical way, until, performing our own self-evaluation and resolving to steel ourselves with determination, we, like the soldier in the novel, return to the face this enemy and fight it until we conquer it.
If one reads the novel with that perspective, it may have special, encouraging value for us. There have also been several film versions of the story which one can watch that also serve this purpose.
This is likely not a purpose of the novel that Stephen Crane ever intended, but like all great literature, a good novel can serve many such purposes..