With the twentieth century behind us, I have looked back and tried to piece together themes that stretch over all of the books that we have read. Probably the most overarching theme of the course is one of unrequited love - love that is one sided, whether romantic or not. I think that the most heightened instance of this theme would be the relationship between Hagar and Milkman. She was driven crazy from the denial that she felt from the way that milkman treated her as well as how he ended things. There is no doubt that Hagar's love was never rewarded or even remotely returned. Milkman was the relief from another instance in Song of Solomon, the relationship between Macon and Ruth, even Ruth and her father. Contentious love manifested character relations in other books as well: Antoinette and Rochester, Jake and Brett, Meursault and his mother. While not all of the relationships listed above were romantic, they all share a single party that was left in the dust by the other cha...