Influenced by Rousseau, by her own desire to see the end of the feudal order, and by her daily contact with real life, Isabelle de Charrière regards literature as contributing to a necessary change in people's ways of seeing. Relying on a mode of anonymous publication relatively new to her, Lettres neuchâteloises and Lettres trouvées dans la neige show how she sees print as playing a significant role by inviting readers to test "realistically" how different their own society might or should be.