Before this class, my personal views of literature consisted of my entire school life. Growing up and having the privilege of being able to attend school to obtain an education, I was introduced to the different types of literature at a young age. However, I was not able to fully appreciate it, seeing as how I did not have the capabilities back then to thoroughly analyze and comprehend the texts. English was always my favorite subject in school so writing and reading had become second nature to me. In all of my school years, the high school years were the ones where I gained the most experience with literature. Looking back and remembering the analyses I had to do, I am now grateful for it because it helped to prepare me for this course.
Coming into this class, I was not sure what to expect. The only thing on my mind when coming into this class was how excited I was to expand my knowledge through the world of literature. As I had mentioned before, English was my favorite subject growing up therefore, I had minimal fears of this class which included the rigorous workload. However, by signing up for this class, I knew what was expected of me as well as what I had to do to acquire a good grade. I did know that this would be a critical thinking class but boy, was I not prepared for the multiple readings we had to do. Although I complained about the critical thinking theory homework assignments to my family and friends, I believe that they really did help in the end. Due to those rigorous assignments, I now have a better way to analyze the readings.
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Throughout the semester, I had really gained new insight into the literature world. This class aided me in my weak spots and/or what I need to improve on but also highlighted what I am doing well on. Due to this, my perception has changed quite a bit. Over the sixteen-week course, I have come to the conclusion that literature is for everyone. Each essay that was given to us this semester provided everyone with a way to express themselves through their writing such as their own interpretation of the texts we had to read. From our critical thinking theory assignments, I did not know that there were many different types of theories and that more than one could apply to a certain text. These critical thinking theories played an important part in expanding my learning of the literature world because they provided me with some background knowledge of what to expect as well as what to look for when analyzing a text.
My favorite short story was “Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. This short story takes place in a town square where a lottery takes place once a year, hence the title of the story. However, this lottery was not one’s typical lucky one but rather it is one where the “winner” will get stoned to death. This specific short story is meaningful to me because I can relate to it. From my own viewpoint, I can infer that the theme or main point of this story entails people aimlessly following their traditions just for the sake of the tradition without questioning the nature and/or outcome of their actions. Relating my role as a student to this theme, everyone including myself has a set daily routine that we carry out every day. The daily routines being executed become such a second nature to the individuals within our society that they go on about their day without a purpose in life. Although we do not really notice it, we tend to rely on these routines to structure our lives. Just like the townsfolk in the story, they do not even bother questioning their sacred tradition of stoning people to death. This tradition has been alive for so long that they do not realize how their tradition is truly corrupted. In their perspectives, they believe that what they are doing is rationalized such as how little Davy Hutchinson killed his own mother without realizing what the consequences of his actions are. From this, people should learn that it is okay to tweak traditions and/or daily routines even just a little to keep one from becoming an emotionless individual.
My favorite poem was “A Supermarket in California” by Allen Ginsberg. In this poem, the author is portraying a specific observation he had one night while living in California. The setting of the scene, the urban Bay area, is very important because of the fact that his surrounding of the natural world of trees and the moon represents the true raw essence of all that nature has to offer. Ginsberg touches upon how America has become so industrialized and lost its touch with nature and/or natural things based on Walt Whitman’s vision. With the use of Walt Whitman in his poem, he is able to find beauty in the mass of materials. I find this poem to be quite the exposé because of how it truly relates to our society today with the latest upcoming technological advances representing the industrialized side of things. Growing up, kids in my generation did not have access to this fancy new technology. Instead, we had the wonderful opportunity of playing outside in nature and collecting scars along with bruises. Comparing my generation to future generations, we represent the nature side because we had the opportunity of living out our life truly in the natural world whereas the future generations partake in these technological advances as a tool. As the years go by and new generations are born, these children are losing touch with nature just like how Ginsberg has demonstrated in his poem.
My favorite play was “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen. To summarize the play, it took place during the nineteenth century. This play really spoke to me because it still relates to our society today especially when Ibsen mentions the societal expectations of women and what they had to endure during the Victorian era. This play follows a woman, Nora Helmer, who gets herself into a predicament that results in her taking drastic measures to save her husband, Torvald Helmer. The predicament she was facing includes her forging a signature for a loan to save her dear husband’s life. When Krogstad figures out that the signature is forged, he comes to blackmail her. This work is meaningful to me because I believe that it teaches women about the importance of independence. Towards the end of the play, the truth is revealed which also showcases how one’s act of love can put a marriage, family, as well as a woman’s honor and/or reputation in a society that does not accept any mistakes made by women. In their society, Nora goes against the expectations and/or norms of a typical housewife. After the whole forging incident, she left behind her life to go out into the world to discover her true identity. This explains the importance of independence for women due to the fact that she owes it to herself to seize that opportunity by paving a new pathway for a new lifestyle.
Over the semester, this class really changed my perspective on literature. I have learned to appreciate the art of it a little more as well as helping to re-spark my interest in reading more books for leisure purposes. Before this class, I had only read through the texts once and then tried to analyze them. However, I now know that re-reading the texts, helps one to better comprehend them along with noticing things that I would not tend to notice by just reading through them once. During my fall semester of freshman year when I had taken English 100, it gave me relief in knowing that I was going to do well in this course. However, my essay scores in this course really changed my perspective on how I am as a writer. Going from getting all A’s on my papers in English 100 to getting B’s on my papers in English 110 really bummed me out because of how superb I thought my writing skills were. It really made me reflect on how it never hurts to brush up on one’s skills to try to improve them. The skills that I learned in this class through my essays’ rubrics will help me in the future because now I truly know where my strengths and weaknesses lie.
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