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Literary notes about become (AI summary)

In literature, the word "become" is used as a versatile marker of transformation, change, and the unfolding of destinies. Authors employ it to signal shifts in physical appearance, emotional states, social roles, and even metaphysical conditions. For example, in some narratives it denotes a dramatic loss or alteration of former qualities—"What had become of her vivacity" [1]—while in others it suggests the achievement of a new status, as when characters "have become intimate" or aspire to new roles such as a doctor or hero [2, 3, 4]. At times, "become" raises questions of fate or destiny, inviting readers to wonder "what will become of" a character or object [5, 6, 7]. This multifaceted usage enriches literary texts by capturing both the process and result of change, grounding abstract transitions in tangible terms.
  1. What had become of her vivacity, her coquetry, her caprices, her haughty mien, her contemptuous smile, her absentminded glance?...
    — from A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Iurevich Lermontov
  2. In less than a week we had become intimate.
    — from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
  3. If you chose to, you could become a doctor, or, if you wanted to, you could become an engineer.
    — from Best Russian Short Stories
  4. " Stick to a thing and carry it through in all its completeness and proportion, and you will become a hero.
    — from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden
  5. “What has become of him, then?”
    — from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
  6. I wonder what will become of it?
    — from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. Andersen
  7. What has become of him?
    — from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet

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