American Lit and Lit Crit go hand in hand

"Perspective is what might traditionally be called point of view, and can also be variously subdivided; the narrator may know more than the characters, less than them, or move on the same level outside the action or internally focalized, recounted by one character from a fixed position, from variable positions, or from several character-view-points. A form of external focalization' is possible, in which the narrator knows less than the characters do." (Eagleton 92)

This was probably one of the few clear points that I got last week. I couldn't believe that something I would read in my Lit crit class would help me understand something in my American Lit class. In my American Lit class we recently read The Great Gatsby. There was a good discussion going this exact quote. If you haven't read this book, Nick is the narrator of the story. Fitzgerald sets things up in a way that Nick only gives the reader only so much information. The reader can only make opinions or assumptions about Gatsby through Nick. If you read the book there is a lot that Nick doesn't say.
And as I was looking at the quote again, I realized that this quote can also apply to The Grapes of Wrath, the book we are currently reading in my American Lit class. Steinbeck sets up the story so that there are several different view points throughout, it's not ever just Tom Joad's perspective.
When I love when I actually get this stuff and can apply it to something else, some other class.