A Curious Life Is A Happy Life

The main theme throughout the book is that in order to be happy, one must fight to be conscious of oneself and the world in which one lives. Anne recalls when she was five and sees that at that age, she was just starting to become conscious. She recalls living her quiet domestic life where the days were spent alternating between her various activities and reflecting on those various activities. This same pattern followed Anne throughout her life, and it seems that it is necessary, in her mind, that these periods of awareness be broken up by periods of simply living. She learned this lesson at Paw Paw, where she found herself living every moment totally aware, and thereby missing the world, the object which was supposed to be the focal point of her consciousness.

A subtext of the book is that...