❝ heaven is on earth. ❞ ➸ sylvia phillips is attending her third year at the esteemed bard college in new york. a california woman with dreams of one day being an educated teacher of english, she fears that her aspiration may never come to be as moving to new york and living on her own led her to become conscious of her deep-rooted flaws. she is discontented with her life, worrying that she is falling further from achieving her pursuits in academia. moreover, she begins to despise her friends and peers, frustrated with how they can not understand her as she illustrates a false, untainted portrait of herself. it is when she happens upon a job opportunity to work at an impoverished high school as an assistant teacher to henry barthes, that she begins to understand the ignorance and misery she bears and the beauty of life itself.