As scenes from Juliana's life are enacted before us — often narrated from her point of view — our perspective on her character begins to shift, imperceptibly at first, and ultimately radically.
The key scenes from the novel are enacted before us: a brutal brawl between Pecola's parents; the traumatic day when Pecola gets her first period while she is staying with Claudia and Frieda; the humiliating sexual experience that poisoned Cholly's life.
Better still, Jordan has developed the characters' histories: we will discover exactly why Miss Havisham became an embittered old spinster, and understand the full tragedy of the Barbary sisters, because the back stories of Great Expectations and Bleak House are being enacted before us.
All told, wherever that starting point is, the point is to drive us out to spread the good news that we do not have to be captive to injustice we generate, enacted upon us, or on our behalf.
I watched the tearful plea of a mother who lost her child on December 14th at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and I again thought about the meaningful change that needs to be enacted for us to avoid the next unfathomable tragedy.
"We needed to form an advocacy group [Bourbon Alliance of Responsible Entertainers] because people are going to continue to write things about us and enact policy about us without ever asking us.
It's just that very few grinds are bringing new ideas to scale and hiring workers to enact their us-against-the-world schemes.
There she witnessed the ripping tale she is about to enact before us, but not before warning that it will be grim indeed.
The reference to the still-roiling roast-the-rich movement, at least, makes a certain amount of sense, since "Godspell" celebrates the idea that the spiritual life is of paramount importance, and among the many parables enacted peppily before us are several reminding that an obsession with material achievement will land you on the wrong side of the fence at the day of judgment.
By contrast, when effective rites of passage are enacted, they carry us from here to there in such a way that we unable to return to square one.
