Literary Sunsets

Spending time watching the sunset-topped slope has been a quiet moment each evening. But my phone camera fails to capture the cloud-piercing pink rays and scattered chatter of the people on the hill. Throughout literary history, writers have been particularly active in the long lineage of people trying to capture the feelings of sunset. Given how visually overwhelming sunsets can be, representation through words can often tell far more than photographs. 

In H.E. Hilton’s The Outsiders, a shared sunset is used to break down socioeconomic barriers. In a town split between two opposing social groups, the “Socs” and “Greasers,” the interactions between them are violent and hateful.