Evelyn Waugh's, A Handful of Dust, is one of my favorite novels read for this class. It has everything a reader might want: comedy, tragedy, irony, and reality. the circumstances are predictable and yet completely off the wall, that you are looking at the cover making sure you're still reading the same book.
Waugh makes a definite statement about holding on to the past. How many of us go through life always looking behind us and comparing what once was to what is? I know I do, sometimes. And it can be the most trivial and vain thing that I'm comparing.
What is it in human nature that makes us so desperate to hold on? Why are we afraid of change? Change is inevitable. We really have no choice in the matter. If we continue to go through life holding on the past, one day we will look down and find that our empire is nothing more than "a handful of dust" with no value and even less importance. It's sad, but true. Sometimes to survive you must change.
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