1. Connect personally, autobiographically with two poems in the class poetry folder. Include 150+ words for this one.
2. Through reading and writing, what have you learned about yourself this semester? Include 150+ words for this one.
(Include 300+ total words.)
90 comments:
First, I read “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight” by Dylan Thomas. I chose this poem because I recalled hearing it as the main phrase in the movie Interstellar, and I wanted to fully read the poem to see if it added context to the movie. It was very fitting for that movie, as the moral is to not give up, even in death. At the end, it is revealed this poem is about his father (even more fitting for the movie). I think that everyone can relate to this poem, as there will come a time in our lives when the people we love will leave the Earth, and we will not want them to give up, we will want them to fight to stay with us. I also read “This Be the Verse” by Phillip Larkin, and wow. I agree with the overall idea that we become similar to our parents personalities, as I definitely display similar traits to both of my parents. I overall do not like this poem, as I think that we each build our own personalities as well and develop our own faults, which is part of being human, and my understanding of it was that he is imagining a human race without human faults, which means no humans at all.
This semester, I have greatly increased my critical thinking and literary analysis. By reading our novels, short stories, and poems this year, I have come to realize my own opinions and outlooks. Analyzing novels this year has helped me to realize the importance of trying to understand other people’s situations. In novels, you may get some background knowledge of the supporting characters, but you do not get that information in real life, so you must automatically be considerate and sympathetic towards others. I have also learned that I really enjoy different genres of literature. Prior to this year, I feel like I mostly stayed within certain classifications for my reading, but this class has forced me to read outside my comfort zone and discover different authors, helping me to learn that I should read more classic literature. I have also gained a newfound appreciation for short stories, as I often thought short stories were not worth my time (with the expectation of Fitzgerald, of course). I now know that short stories can carry powerful messages and interesting plotlines.
The first poem that I read was "At the Globe with Shakespear" by Patrick Hicks. This short poem is about what William Shakespear would think about our day and age compared to his. He would be simply amazed at all the different things such as planes and computers and ballpoint pens. He would be intrigued as to how his plays were directed. This poem made me think about what life will be like in another couple hundred years. What will be different? What will they say about my generation? The next poem that I read was "This Be the Verse" by Philip Larkin. This poem is about how parents take their traumas that they got from their parents and pass them onto their kids. Then they also add a few more traumas to pass onto their kids. This makes me think about being a parent myself and wanting to avoid going through some of the struggles that I have in life. I believe that the goal of most parents is to give their kids a better life than they had. So I disagree with the message of the poem based on my life experiences and my parents doing a great job of providing a good life for me.
Throughout this semester, I have learned that I am a far better writer than I previously thought. Not only was I able to write on a topic that I was not entirely thrilled about in the Lens essay, but I was also able to write 8 pages about a chapter of Yann Martel's Life of Pi that was only one and a half pages long. I was very proud of myself for this feat because I was unsure if I would be able to accomplish it. However, along with that, I have chosen to undertake the 22+ page essay. Not only am I unconcerned that I will hit the necessary length, but I am actually enjoying writing about the Life of Pi from the perspective of Richard Parker. This surprised me because I typically do not enjoy writing essays.
The first poem I read was “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. A very interesting and different way of describing how the Second Coming of Christ will be. In the beginning, we can see the terror and chaos of the waiting. We can take the time of waiting into our days of the beginning of Covid-19. We did not know what the future held and many of us were unmotivated and not hopeful. Just like the people waiting for the second coming. Then in the poem, there comes a day where the main character thinks there has to be a revelation soon, there has to be a second coming. In quarantine to say that every once in a while we thought that one day this will end and we will go back to “normal” would be the truth for most of us. The ending of the poem is not as nice as we would hope and I do not know how to connect that with everyday life because we have to be hopeful. The next poem I read was “O Me! O Life!” by Walt Witman. This poem is about the expectations and reality of life. There are challenges in life and he says there comes a time when you do not solve the challenges and become disappointed. The point of this poem, I think, is to realize that you are living and that is enough to contribute to humanity. Although this does not specifically connect with me, it is a good reminder to just live your life and stop worrying about the challenges and problems of the world.
I have learned that I am capable of a lot more than I think. Writing and reading is a great way to expand your ability to learn. I have grown in my writing tremendously by thinking about what words sound better or just the flow of words. I can be more creative with my writing. I also notice when I am reading that I put different lenses on to interpret different novels, poems, and even movies. I can tell by just this year that I have grown in how I write and how I interpret different readings. I also have grown to respect authors and what they do. Creating can be fun but it is also challenging and time-consuming, and many of these authors create unbelievable readings. Authors are very selfless by giving us ways to entertain yet grow as human beings.
The first poem I read was “What the Drop of Water Had to Say” by Yann Martel. Initially, I was drawn in by the creativity Martel employs by portraying the sun and moon as a brother and sister. As I read further, I gained a new perspective on the importance of water to every living thing. Specifically, I liked when the sun said, “Water is a hundred billion clasped hands, a great chain that embraces the globe. I see that now.” I never really thought about how water connects us all as humans, as well as connects us to animals and our environment because we all need water. I also liked how Yann Martel included a short section speaking about equality between men and women. The moon says humans are foolish because they are divided between the genders, and therefore use only half of their brainpower in the sense that women and men are not equal in society. One is at home while the other is off at work. The moon implies that maybe if the two came together and were equal, more problems, such as using up water, could be solved. For me personally, I gained a lot more insight on how we abuse the water on our planet, therefore affecting everything around us, as well as our future. The second poem I read was “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. The poem speaks of a future of darkness and destruction, alluding to the book of Revelation in the Bible. I did some background research on Yeats and discovered he wrote this poem shortly after WWI and the beginning of the War for Independence in Ireland, where Yeats was from. Additionally, he wrote the poem shortly after his wife almost died of the Spanish Flu. I think Yeats feeling as if the end was near at the time he wrote the poem, and he was full of fear for the future. During this past year, I think I, along with many others, have felt similar fears, as if all the bad things happening are leading to the end of the world and the beginning of terror.
Through reading and writing, I have learned that I have a lot more interest in literature than I initially realized. Though I have always respected those who love to read and write, I was never interested in literature myself. This semester, however, I have found that I can connect to any novel, book, play, short story, or poem I read, and all have a unique message that grabs my interest. Furthermore, through writing about what I have read, I have found that I am able to find further meaning in what I read, gaining insight onto what the message is. This semester, I have thoroughly enjoyed taking a closer look at books, and I have discovered that the more I learn about a book, the more I want to study and learn even more. I never thought I could connect to a group of boys on an island, or patients in a mental ward, or an Indian boy on a raft in the pacific, but I find that all of these characters have something to say or represent something that I can connect to personally. Overall, I have learned so much, grown as a person, and gained a new viewpoint on the world through 210 Intro to Literature.
The first poem I read was "O me! O Life!", by Walt Whitman. His poem was about the neverending possibilities of life and how it is sometimes overwhelming. Also, that there is much out there and so much to see in our years. He also mentions "That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse". I think this is very prevalent in our lives as we soon will head to college or any of our plans after high school. Life doesnt stop, it is constantly going with or with out us. We will write our own stories along the learning path we will take, which is our own verse. The second poem I read was “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. She talks about addiction and how it takes over her life. She compares it to a marriage and a war. It is all she thinks about. Addiction is very prominent in lives nowadays. It can be very dangerous if it gets out of hand. With parting our ways, it will be more likely to be deceptful to some sort of addiction.
Reading and writing has always been my favorite things to do in school. I have always thought I was an exceptional reader and writier but never took the time to really understand the right tecnhiques. I used to ramble about pointless things and create no sentence structure or variety when writing. With this year, I was able to understand and develop writing skills that have made my writing 10 times better. This allowed me to be more confident when writing essays, blogs, and emails to people. Along with reading, I noticed I understand and depict literature a lot more now. I try to find the deeper meaning and understand what the author was trying to get across. This has allowed me to create my own thoughts and opinions on literature I read.
The first poem that I read was called "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. In the poem, she basically talks about being cool and being rebellious. I can relate to this because sometimes I can be not responsible and go out and hang with friends all night long when in reality that time is going to come to an end soon. It also kind of just summed up how short life really is so live it to the fullest. But that can also only go so far in life. But it is always to have a little bit of both in your life. The second poem that I read was called, "There is a sky" by Emily Dickinson. In her poem, she talks about nature——which is what I got out of it. I can relate to this poem because I love to be outside. I like the way she was describing the sun and the forests and flowers. I can just imagine all of the bright colors and how pretty they could possibly look.
Before taking this class, I honestly hated to write and would always dread having to things that had to be more than a paragraph long. But now that the year is almost to its end, I can now say that I kind of enjoy writing now. Or at least better than what I used to think of it. We have written so many essays and read so many books that I just have gotten used to reading or writing something on a daily basis. Composition and Literature have really taught me how much I could evolve my skills of reading and writing. I also like much my imagination and thought process has developed, I know that this will really help me in the future, like college and other jobs that I might possibly work in.
The first poem I decided to read was “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. This poem talks about how she is a victim of addiction to medications and how it has overcome her life and thoughts. All she wants is to have the medication and “experiment” with them by taking multiple different pills at the same time. I, personally, do not connect to addiction, but I know of other people who do. Granted they are not addicted to medications like she is, but rather other substances like cigarettes or marijuana. Addiction is more prevalent in our lives than we would imagine. Some people are able to hide it, while others are not. Until you really get to know someone, you won’t know their faults. The other poem I decided to read was “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton. I chose to read this poem because I have always been interested in the Holocaust and concentration camps. To think that people could be so inhumane and literally torture people to death amazes me. This poem talks about how she is angry every day for what happened and what she had to endure. It says that “man is evil” for making her endure the things she had to go through.
I have always enjoyed reading and expressing my thoughts through the written word, but I never realized how immature my writing style was until I took this course. I realized that my sentences were boring and had no variation. Now that I understand how to properly structure a sentence and put words together to make them make sense, my writing has improved drastically. Additionally, my vocabulary has improved as well. When it comes to reading, I noticed that before, I used to just read the book/passage/story once whether I fully understood what was happening or not. I never used to deliberately try to find the deeper meaning or the symbolism behind what I had just read. If I did not understand what was happening I just kept going and forgot about it. Now, I also try to look at stories/books with a different perspective. I use my “literary lenses” to help me understand the different points of view.
The first poem I decided to read was “O me! O Life!”, by Walt Whitman. This poem talks about the human struggle. It talks about how life can get overwhelming throughout the years of a person’s life. There are many things a person has to see throughout their life and failure and struggle may come along with that. I can relate to this poem because life can get overwhelming at times. I also fail at different things I try to attempt in life. Sometimes school can get overwhelming with assignments. Also, throughout my life, I have failed at different sports. I have lost important games I should have won. The second poem I read was “We Real Cool”, by Gwendolyn Brooks. This poem talks about being cool and rebellious. I can relate to this poem personally because sometimes I try and do something cool in front of my friends to make them laugh.
Through reading and writing, I have learned a lot about myself this semester. I have also struggled more with reading and writing than any other subject in school. I never understood how to write structured sentences before taking this class. I would just bunch words together and I thought it sounded good. Throughout the semester I tried becoming more creative with my writing. Personally, I think my writing has come a long way. My writing is way better than it ever has been. While reading, I tried to use the different lenses we were taught to apply to the different novels we studied. Using different literary lenses to analyze stories makes reading more enjoyable. It makes it more enjoyable to read because it helps me understand what is happening in the book. I know the skills I have learned throughout the entire year and semester will help me in the future. It will help me with college essays, resumes, and someday my job.
Firstly, I chose to read "This Be The Verse" by Philip Larkin. After reading the first line alone I was taken aback. The harsh nature of the poem invokes passion into Larkin's initiative. He is informing readers that parents' flaws translate directly onto their children. I somewhat agree that children tend to form similar beliefs and habits as their parents, but don't agree that they always develop the same negative tendencies. An example where this tends to be true is kids that grow up with divorced parents may go on believing that marriage is a hoax and could never work. Another common example is alcoholism. While part due to biological factors, the attitude, and demeanor of that parent and how they treat others will most definitely shape the mind of the child. I then read "The Hammock" by Li-Young Lee. This poem stresses perspective. Specifically, the poem references family and how everyone could be so close, yet not know what others are thinking. This resonates with me and reminds me that no matter how much you think you know someone, even family, that they have a lot more going on.
Throughout this semester I've learned a lot about myself that I didn't know reading and writing could uncover. It forced me to use a part of my mind that I had never really opened before. By analyzing literature to such an extreme I finally understand how there can be so many stories to tell and so many books that exist. I can now appreciate literature that I once saw as "boring". My writing has improved greatly over the semester. The once annoying comment bubbles using "Art of Styling Sentences" truly taught me how to vary my essays and sentence structure. Also, in writing so many essays I found that my range of vocabulary has expanded which not only helps in my writing but in everyday conversations and discussions. Another major takeaway from this semester is finding your own way of analyzing things. Most other English classes I have taken make you believe that there is always a right and wrong answer when reading books. While sometimes there are obvious factual answers, much is up to the interpretation of the reader.
I decided to read the poem "The Hammock" by Li-Young Lee. I feel that I connected to this poem because it focuses on the meaning of life, and how purpose is passed through generations. Throughout this poem, he talks a lot about the family connection, especially the connection between his mother and himself. I feel like this helped me connect as I am extremely close with my mother as well. In the end, he questions what happens to your loved ones when they die, is it done there? or is there another life? I believe there is definitely more beyond this lifetime.
Throughout this year and this semester, I definitely think that I have grown as a student and an individual. I have found that through writing several essays, I have matured as a writer and pushed myself harder than ever before. Not only did I learn how to strengthen my writing style, but I have also unlocked parts of my creativity that were not seen before. I learned that writing is something that can help me within my everyday life. I think that it keeps me creative and curious. Not only have I learned from my own writing, but also from that of my classmates. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to take this class, and push myself to be the best student and specifically, writer, that I can be.
I read the poem "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. This is poem is essentially about being rebellious, bad kids. She talks about dropping out of school, hanging out late at night, and drinking gin. I can relate to this because real soon here, I will be leaving school. In the summer I tend to stay out late in summer since there is no school, so the "We Lurk late" also applies to me. The other poem I read was "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. This poem is about not wanting his father to die; he wants him to fight death even though he knows it is close to his time. This poem is very interesting because Thomas says that wise men know when it is their time, but he still does not want his father to go gently in the night. He wants him to fight and stay alive for as long as possible.
This year, my comprehension of language has improved drastically. I was never a huge reader as a kid, but this year kind of opened my eyes to why people should read. I know more words and can comprehend more thoroughly what the passage is trying to say. I also never thought that a movie such as The Lion King would have so many underlying messages throughout the movie. This has also made me think deeper about just everyday television shows and books to try and find something that a director slipped in under the radar, just as Yann Martel slipped in his birthday into one of his books. I am also a better writer. Not only can I write longer things, but they flow better and use better verbiage. The Term Tuesdays that we go over have made me use so many more writing styles—like the use of a dash. Forcing us to use new and better writing techniques has made us all better writers, something that will greatly improve our college readiness.
I read “There Is Another Sky”, by Emily Dickinson. This poem shows a lot about how there is always something else out there that you do not know of right now. It really emphasizes the idea of time and experiences. The longer that you are around the more things you realize and can understand. I can relate this to high school because there are things that I thought were a big deal as a freshman, but now I understand that there are things that are more important than that. The second poem that I read was Walt Witman’s poem, “O Me! O Life!” This poem was super interesting to me because Whitman says that everyone around him is foolish and faithless. This poem is centered around the idea of the reality of life. I can connect this to myself because you should live every day to strive for something meaningful and not go through your days with hopeless dreams. Setting goals that are real and something that you can accomplish can make your life become meaningful.
Throughout this semester, I have learned a lot about myself as a writer and reader. I never thought that I would enjoy writing but after the semester of composition, I realized that it is not that bad. Writing gives you a way to be creative and put thoughts onto the page. I never thought that I would be able to write so much about one chapter of a novel. Not only has my writing improved but, the way that I read literature has changed. Before I would just read the novel for the basic plot, but now I have learned to look deeper. I have learned how to critically analyze parts of literature. There are things that I would have never thought of or noticed in novels. This class has forced me to look deeper into the meanings of different novels and think about not just the plot but the different layers that the author was trying to convey.
The first poem I read was "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. After reading the poem, I made a personal connection to this poem as I am preparing to graduate high school and move on to college. The message of the poem is quite clear: dropping out of school is not cool, and will possibly lead to a life that leads to death. I believe that education is one of the most important things that people can take with them in life. No one can ever take it away from you if you are willing to stick it out, and unfortunately, some don't last. This poem is definitely a reminder to me of the importance of education. The second poem I read was "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" by Emily Dickinson. I could connect to this poem on a personal level similar to the first poem I read. As I am about to move into a new chapter in my life, changes are abundant and eminent. Changes can be fearful and dreadful, but they are necessary. The message in Dickinson's poem is all about facing fear and dealing with anxiety, hence what the snake represents. Snakes deceive and induce fear in people, similar to what big changes do. People need to always be on their guard when changes occur so they do not get tricked, and I must follow a similar example.
The main knowledge that I will retain from this semester is that reading is very helpful for the mind, as many of the events and messages of the stories we read I could relate to and ponder about. Despite the characters being extremely flawed and seeming very different from a normal student at BVHS, they still have the same trials and tribulations that we have, often feeling alone and afraid during those times. I realized that the great authors that we studied did this on purpose, using their expertise to create characters and plot lines that last far beyond their original publication date. This semester has opened my eyes to many of the bright ideas and topics that are available to analyze through literature, encouraging me to continue to expand my mind through the use of it. I look forward to the future where I can continue to study the authors that we touched upon this year.
1) In "The Hammock" by Li-Young Lee, it starts off by saying, "waiting inside my mother's singing to herself." This line makes me think of how my mom is an excellent singer. All my life she has been part of the worship team at church and she's always singing in the car. The poem also says, "When I lay my head in my mother's lap." This makes me remember how my mom would rub my stomach whenever I didn't feel good as a kid. I would wake up with stomach pain and I would crawl into her bed in the middle of the night and she would comfort me until I fell asleep. The second poem that I can relate to is Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool." The line "We Jazz June," relates to me because I listening to jazzy music in the summer. It's full of chill hits that are straight vibes when riding in the car.
2) Through reading and writing this semester, I realized how important it is to read books that you personally find intriguing. Last year I started reading Divergent and I finished the series in a few months. I loved those books so much that they made me appreciate reading. This semester we read some truly boring books that have great hidden meanings but can be draining to read. I know from now on that in order for me to enjoy reading, I have to be reading books that I have an interest in. I think being able to choose my own books to read plays a huge part in this. Writing this semester has given me a deeper insight into what it's like for authors to write their own novels. They put in so much time and effort to create something for someone to read only a few times. I am now more comfortable writing essays with difficult requirements and topics.
I read the poem "The Hammock" by Li-Young Lee. This poem essentially shows the two sides that he has experienced with children and parents. On one side of it, Lee remembers being a child and becoming absolutely in love with his mother. She took care of him confidently, and as a child, he loved that. As a parent, he wonders how his mother took care of him. How was she so confident? How was she so brave? He looks at his own child and realizes that he has no idea what his child is thinking about him. Stuck in between these thoughts, Lee expresses how he is so blessed to be in the position that he is in now. I can relate to this on a more personal level when Lee explains his relationship with his mom. I also remember my mother taking care of me and loving on me. She would play with my hair, take me to the park, and do all of the things that a good mom would. I can imagine that when I get to the point of my life where I have children, I would find myself in the same shoes as Lee: in happy confusion.
I learned a lot about myself through our reading and writing this year. One thing specifically is the fact that I honestly need a good outline in order to write out a good essay. I'm awful at going with the flow and going wherever my writing takes me. I learned that I like a good essay outline (but it doesn't have to be too crazy). I already knew from previous classes that I have a hard time staying up late to read books. My eyes shut long before I get close to my goal. This year, though, I learned a trick for focusing on reading. In order to stay attentive to what I read, I need to drink a lot of water and move around every once in a while. If that doesn't work, the key is to take short, 5 minute breaks. Grabbing a snack, running up the stairs, or even taking a five-minute snooze works great if you're trying to stay awake. It's a shame it took me this long to figure it out.
First, I read "We Real Cool", by Gwendolyn Brooks. I chose this because the title popped out to me as I scrolling through. I personally connect to this poem due to the music that she talks about. Singing sin and Jazzing in June are very relatable. If you stop to actually listen to lyrics in songs now, they actually turn out to be terrible lyrics, but we sing them because they flow well or have a cool beat. Ignorance like this is something that can be dangerous if we don't realize what we are actually broadcasting and advertising. Jazzing in June also relates to me because that is my favorite month. I have a lot of energy, work a lot, and hang out a lot with my friends. The word, jazz, can mean music but to me, it means my spirits and personality. Secondly, I read "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" by Emily Dickenson. I picked this one also because of the title but then a line really stuck out to me. She talks about a boy barefoot in the grass. Reading this line brought me back to my childhood and I was reminded of how fun and carefree it really was back then. Running barefoot with soil between my toes felt like I could take Usain Bolt in a race someday. Through reading and writing this year, I have learned a great deal about myself. As a freshman, sophomore, and junior, my morals were not steadfast. This year, reading the different books that challenge your morals and who you are as a person, I have realized and become unwavering in my morals. I really enjoyed this year and especially enjoyed Lord of the Flies. Putting myself in those situations has been a lot of fun to do and realize what I would do.
I connected with Emily Dickinson's "There Is Another Sky." She describes a world where brighter plants grow, no frost forms, and flowers don't fade. Basically, there are no worries or concerns there. Everything is perfect, beautiful, and bright. I relate this place to Heaven. When I die, I will go to a place similar to the world described by Dickinson. I also connected to "After Auschwitz" by Anne Sexton. Sexton judges the Nazis and wishes them harm. She is angry and describes them as monsters. Then, at the end of the poem, she regrets everything she has said aloud and hopes that God hasn't heard her, fearing that she has become just like the men she describes. Even though I will never be able to fully understand the horrors of the Holocaust, I can relate to this poem on a smaller scale. At times, I am angry at someone who did harm to me and I wish harm upon them. Later, after the anger subsides, I regret my painful wishes and ask God for forgives. I realize that I became just as bad as the person who did me wrong first.
Through reading and writing about various books and topics this semester, I learned that I enjoy writing research papers the most. I like gathering information that others have found and applying it to books or putting it all together in a research paper. It helped me confirm that the medical field will be suitable for me. My mind isn't as creative as it used to be and it enjoys straightforward, correct answers. The medical field requires this mindset. In addition, I have found that there are more ways to analyze literature than I had previously thought. I am now able to apply literary lenses to dig deeper into books and their meanings. I can now fully appreciate all the thought and work authors put into writing stories. Writing a book takes longer than I had previously thought. Since I was little I always had the idea of writing a book someday, but now I'm not sure if I'll have the time to put into writing one.
The first poem that I read was “There is Another Sky” by Emily Dickinson. The main idea of the poem as a whole is that the world wears away and things change and get destroyed and get rebuilt and over time, they become something completely different, but the narrator has created her own world where everything is perfect. “Faded forests” that were once lush and green become lifeless wastelands, the sky gets dark and changes to night, fields that were ripe with crops turn into developments hosting blocks of houses (although this was probably not the case when Dickinson wrote the poem in the 19th century), but in the narrator’s mind, there is a place where nothing changes and everything is good. For me, it’s hard not to compare everything that we study to graduating high school and leaving things behind. Perhaps some people wish that nothing changed from these last four years. They would choose to keep the same friend group, do the same sports and activities, work at the same job. But unlike the perfect world in the narrator’s mind, we also have to move on and see major things in our lives change (in both good and bad ways). The second poem that I read was “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton. I think the most powerful line in the entire poem is the very last one: “I beg the Lord not to hear”. To me, Sexton is saying that the things she wishes on mankind (specifically, on the Nazis) are so horrible that she doesn’t want God to know that such things could be conceived in her mind because if she does these horrible things, she is no better than the Nazis she’s condemning. Although not the main point of the poem, what I take away from this is that we have to be able to take the high road. When people wrong us, it is so easy to get angry and lash out and do whatever we can to get revenge on those people. If anyone in the history of mankind has ever deserved to get revenge on anyone, it’s the Jews who lived in Europe from 1933-1945. But Sexton reminds us, albeit subtly, that in order for humanity to improve and in order to not repeat the horrors of the Holocaust, we have to be able to take the high road.
What I’ve learned the most this semester is that there is so much more to literature than just the plot. Growing up, it’s easy for us to imagine that we could write a book in a few weeks or maybe a couple of months if we weren’t super efficient and that it would just take reading a couple books for research, but learning about how authors like Yann Martel prepare for years and years and years to write one novel and how much material they prepare versus what they actually end up publishing was an eye-opening experience. I always knew of the idea of reading stories from various perspectives, but I was amazed at how easy it is to find connections laced throughout entire novels using so many different lenses. You could view Life of Pi through a religious, feminine, Marxist, or Freudian lens and there is page after page after page of material that supports whichever lens you choose to analyze the story with. I never would have analyzed literature in this way but now I'll be able to understand what I read on a whole different level than what I have in the past.
The first poem I read was "This Be the Verse" by Philip Larkin. I found the language he used in the first line and throughout the poem to be interesting. I have never read a poem using such harsh language and it work so well. I like how the poem addressed that everybody has faults inlcuding parents. I don't know that I necessarily believe that all of a parents faults are directly passed down to a child as when a child doesn't like something that their parents do, they try not to implement the same tactics for their own children. I can relate to this because I know my parents have faults so I have to know that it's just human nature. The next poem I read was "O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman. I liked that the poem focuses on the foolish and the faithless. I also liked how it focused on people doing the same thing over and over again. I can relate to this because I get sucked into routines a lot so I never really do anything new.
The main things that I have gained throughout this semester is the ability to analyze and understand text better. Usually when I read a book or write a story, I just focus on the main storyline, never really broadening my horizen to analyzing a text through literary lenses. Analyzing a book through several lenses gives a book more dimension. Also through this semester I have learned to make my writing a lot better which also stems from last semester. I feel when I'm writing now I'm thinking about the little things that make a essay or a book better such as imagery, foreshadowing, and other literary devices. Also while writing using a different lens to analyze my writing. I have found that I like doing these things because it makes my writing better and it makes it more fun to do.
The first poem that I decided to read was "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. Reading this poem was very fitting because I just lost my grandfather last year during covid. From what I can remember is that my grandfather never gave up on trying to get better. This is exactly what the poem is trying to convey. Even in death, some people do not give up and I fully believe that this describes him perfectly because even on earth he would never give up farming even though some days he could barely get into the tractor. The next poem that I read was "There is another sky" by Emily Dickinson. I liked this poem because it makes me think that even in my darkest days there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is another more peaceful place in my mind where everything is good. I can relate to this because at the end of the year everybody is just on the edge of their seat waiting to graduate, and at a point, some of us give up. There is another place of peace for us.
The main thing that I have learned this semester is that a book is so much more than just the words written on the page. Most of the time novels have a secret meaning behind almost everything in the novel. When it seems as though nothing makes sense in the book everything we learned through the semester guides us to look deeper into the meaning thus understanding what the author was intending instead of skipping over the page. Another thing that this class gave me was the ability to analyze and understand the deeper meaning behind words and sentences in the text. Before this class, we would just read the book and take a test on the novel, but after I feel I can read a book and analyze the meaning in the text and see some things that other readers might not see because they do not know what to look for yet.
The first poem I read was "This Be the Verse" by Philip Larkin. I found the language he used in the first line and throughout the poem to be interesting. I have never read a poem using such harsh language and it work so well. I like how the poem addressed that everybody has faults inlcuding parents. I don't know that I necessarily believe that all of a parents faults are directly passed down to a child as when a child doesn't like something that their parents do, they try not to implement the same tactics for their own children. I can relate to this because I know my parents have faults so I have to know that it's just human nature. The next poem I read was "O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman. I liked that the poem focuses on the foolish and the faithless. I also liked how it focused on people doing the same thing over and over again. I can relate to this because I get sucked into routines a lot so I never really do anything new.
The main things that I have gained throughout this semester are the ability to analyze and understand text better. Usually when I read a book or write a story, I just focus on the main storyline, never really broadening my horizen to analyzing a text through literary lenses. Analyzing a book through several lenses gives a book more dimension. It makes it more fun to read because you have so much more you can focus on instead of just the plot as a whole. While analyzing a book, the finer details become so much more important and fun to point out. Also through this semester I have learned to make my writing a lot better whihc also stems from last semester. I feel when I'm writing now I'm thinking about the little things that make a essay or a book better such as imagery, foreshadowing, and other literary devices. Writing through the Marxists, orientalist, freudian, religious, and other lenses have added complexity to my writing that makes it better. It also makes writing more fun as you can add details that only you might catch or that other readers will enjoy.
The first poem I read was Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool". This poem caught my eye when I saw it because of the short simple title. The story of this poem is how this group of friends thought they were too cool for school. Now they are broke and have to share one bottle of "gin" or alcohol because none of the guys are capable of affording their own alcohol because they do not have educations or jobs. This poem is just telling us that we need to get educations and with my high school graduation only a couple of weeks away this is more prominent than ever for me. The second poem I read was Larkin's "This Be The Verse" because the language at the start caught my attention. The poem is about parents unintentionally passing their traumas to their kids and that kids need to get out of their house as soon as they can to become their own selves. As kids grow up they start to realize that their parents do not have all the answers and that their life lessons are different to what their kids need due to the fact they grew up in a different time.
Through reading and writing this semester I learned and gained the ability to take more out of texts and movies. Before this class I would not have viewed the Lion King through a Marxist lens and took real-life lessons from it, I simply would have just watched the movie and seen a bunch of animals on the African Savannah. Another example of this is when reading Life of Pi before we discussed it I did not even think of the symbols and that maybe the human story is the real story but now I have gained the ability to use a wider perspective on things and to take more out of life.
Dickinson’s “There is another sky” is about the love she has for her brother and how it’s in a better place. She talks about heaven and how she hopes he visits her sometimes. She describes heaven as a way she copes with him being gone. It’s comforting knowing that the people you love are in a better place. I remember when a family friend died. He was only 20 when he got killed in a car accident. I hope he is somewhere nice. Larkin’s “This Be the Verse” is interesting to say the least. My dad gave me problems through genetics then gets upset when I have those problems. And my mom doesn’t want to acknowledge that those problems exist in my life and play it off like nothing is wrong. They both see mental issues as taboo and they try their best to forget they exist. And my mom even suffered from postpartum problems herself and I’m just like… I’M NEVER HAVING KIDS.
I’ve learned a lot about myself this past year. Mainly this past semester, I have found my love for analysing literature and discovering the deeper meanings behind the books we read this semester. I feel as though the books we read in the past weren’t great books to analyse considering the meaning behind them slapped you in the face. The manifesto also showed me how much I love writing. I love telling stories that I can relate to in some way. I understand why writers do what they do know. Just being able to problem solve and write about what I know opened my eyes to what I could do with a class like literature. I’ve found a true passion for literature and I hope to do something with it at Augie. This class was my favourite from this year. It challenged me but in a way that I wasn’t struggling. I got to push myself and it really paid off.
I chose to read “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. This poem is about family and essentially the meaning of life. It stresses that even though we are very close with our family members because we live together, we do not know what they are thinking or going through. I can connect with this poem because my mom and I have grown closer as I have gotten older, but that doesn’t mean we always know exactly how each other is feeling. My family and I have many shared experiences, but we also live a separate life when each other is at school or work. The second poem I read is called “O me O life” by Wall Whitman. The poem talks about life's purpose and how everyone contributes to something in some way. I can relate to this because I believe that each day is important and that the little things matter. I don’t want to spend my whole life only working towards one goal because then I will miss out on some things along the way.
Through reading and writing, I have learned so much about myself and how important it is to read and write. Sometimes I don’t even know what I think or feel about something until I just start writing. It is a great way to organize my thoughts and find out what exactly I am feeling. Writing has always taken me a long time to finish, but taking this class forced me to manage my time since we never really stopped writing. These skills will be very useful in college because I will have plenty of more essays to write. For reading, I have always enjoyed it when it was a book I picked out myself because I usually am not interested in the books teachers pick out for us. This year, I did end up learning a lot and enjoying the novels we studied. I think it is really good for me to read books I normally wouldn’t pick out because it expands my interests. This class gave me a new way of thinking when it comes to reading because I normally don’t look for hidden meanings within books or movies.
In Yann Martel’s poem, “What the Drop of Water Had to Say”, he writes about the Sun and the Moon. When I started reading, I thought it would be about family trauma. Parents arguing and siblings running away. As the poem continues, the moon begins to talk about Earth, his beloved “Garden”. The water on earth is necessary for survival, yet it is drying up and being spoiled with oil and debris, thrown carelessly into the ocean. I’ve always had quite an interest in the well-being of the earth. You’d think with all the advancements in technology people have made in the last few decades, we’d find a way to rely on something besides fossil fuels, which pollute water. But we haven’t. We still mainly rely on fossil fuels for heat, transportation, and electricity. The Earth is wasting away and if we continue to live the way we are, the next few generations will suffer greatly.
Anne Sexton’s poem “The Addict” relates to numbing pain with drugs or anything that one can be addicted to. Her addiction consumes her as she uses it to ignore her mental illness. I have experienced difficult times and used other forms of distractions to hide my pain rather than work through it. Sometimes mental illness can be so painful, that the only way someone knows how to live through it is to suppress it for a while until they are strong enough to deal with it.
The last year of reading and writing in Mr. C’s class solidified my strength in women and their power but helped me fully understand how they are treated differently from men. I always have my feminist lenses put on and want to fight to help others acquire some glasses or contacts. I’ve noticed things about authors and the importance of their novels and poems. For example, Yann Martel is more than just the writer of a book. He has many incredible opinions and perspectives he’s willing to share with us. Before I didn't acknowledge the author much. It was all about what was inside the cover. Now, I learn the author’s name and appreciate what they’ve written and what it means to them.
One of the stories that I read was “What the Drop of Water had to Say” by Yann Martel and this story talked about the moon explaining how he was worried about Earth and how our Earth is drying up due to climate change. I can relate to this because it is a problem that we have in the world right now and it needs to be fixed. At one point the water talks about the solar panels and an oil spill where all the animals were dying. I think it is sad to hear how much we are hurting animals and hurting Earth just for our benefit when we could be trying to figure out ways to help our Earth. I also read “O Me! O Life” by Walt Whitman and he asks the question why to go through life when there is a lot of hardship that people have to go through and he answers with you yourself is worth it and that you will play a role in this world. I can relate to this because there are some hardships that I have gone through that could have been a lot worse and for the most part, my hardships have not been that hard. When I hear about other people's hardships I think like how can you live through that and then I remember that it's the very fact that they did make it through their hardships that they are here where they are.
When I was reading and writing this semester I learned a couple things about me that I didn’t realize before. I have learned that I do have a lot more to say than what I realized before with having to write more than what I was used to. With my writing into depth with things, I have found that some things I am more passionate about than I realized because I tend to not go into great depth with things when I don’t have to make it so I never realized I had those thoughts about a topic. I also had realized that I do comprehend more than what I realized for reading a book; I used to think that I just read a book for the story and didn’t look too deep into the meaning of the book. Reading the books this semester I have looked deeper into a story and realized that before I was getting these I just wasn’t realizing that I was comprehending a deeper meaning of the book.
Two poems that I have chosen to personally connect with are Philip Larkin's "This Be The Verse" and Walt Whitman's "O Me! O Life". Larkin's poem is about parenthood and having kids. Though that may sound nice, his words are not. He uses vulgar language to talk about how parents mess up their children, how the parents were messed up by their own parents, and advises to never have yourself. I connect with this through my wish to never have children. I do fear that if I have children, I would mess up, but it's more on the fact I just do not like kids. Whitman's poem is him having a repeating question: why am I here? Whitman answers himself, saying that existing is the reason and that is a good enough reason. I personally connect as I have also asked this question a good few times, though I have yet to personally answer it.
Through the reading and writing that I have done throughout the semester, I have not learned that much about myself. Through reading, I have not learned anything about myself. I am a relatively slow reader and it is hard for me to follow stories that I have no real interest in other than getting a good grade for. These two things I already have known for quite some time now. I know to give me some extra time to make sure I am able to read the novels and I look at summaries of the novels we read so I am able to fully understand the story. I have learned a bit more about myself through writing though. I learned that I, when correctly prompted, can write much more than I realized I could. This is helpful to get to the page requirements. Also, I now think I am a better writer than I was before.
Madeleine Pearce
1) The first poem I read was "The Second Coming". I chose this poem for a multitude of reasons but knowing that it was written in 1920 I was curious if he maybe predicted some events that eventually followed. I realized that this was written in between the world wars which means Yeats most likely did not have a very strong opinion of many overall. It makes sense for him to write this because he was most likely saw the end of the world in the near future. I can connect with this poem because there has been a lot of uncertainty following COVID. When schools were first shut down I think most people were worried and curious about what would happen. The second poem I read was "O Me! O Life!". This was an interesting poem describing life itself. I thought his story was very accurate with the fact that life doesn't
wait for anyone no matter what. I can connect with this because I will soon be graduating and then off to college. So life will not be waiting for me either.
2) I have learned a ton this year. For example, I learned that you must see the book you are reading to the end. While reading One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Life of Pi, and Beatrice and Virgil I found myself somewhat bored in the beginning. I was struggling to get into the books and questioned why these books were so popular. However, after reading sometimes just a few pages on I realized why they are so popular. Every novel we read in this class was amazing in my opinion and I am glad that I was pushed to continue to read them. Another thing I realized from reading this semester was that most books are completely packed full of the information you must dig for. It is extremely likely people read these books each day and don't connect the deeper meaning found in most of the novels. Luckily, this class forces us to find deeper meanings. I learned plenty of writing last semester as well. I have never been a huge fan of writing and this was often due to a lack of knowledge in what I am doing. However, I feel as if you have helped my writing ability exponentially. This will most definitely pay dividends down the road in searching for an occupation as well as in college.
I related to Lee's “The Hammock” poem because lately, I have been thinking about my childhood memories and often was left wondering why my parents handled a situation the way they did. Sometimes I think about what my future holds. I hope to have kids one day and I don’t want to have to worry about the same things my parents did. I want to be able to find a middle ground of living the way my parents taught me and doing what's best for my kid. I also relate to Emily Dickinson's “There is another sky”; what I got out of it is that there will always be another day where something happens, be it good or bad and she knows that there is darkness out in the world but she is going to focus on the brighter side of life. Which goes along with a saying that I try to live by which is when you have a bad day, look up as tomorrow will be a chance to be better, don’t focus on the negativity going on around you look for the good things in life whenever possible.
This semester I have discovered that I am a better writer than I had previously thought I was. I am now confident enough in my writing to be able to take on a twenty-two-page essay and not have to worry about if I can come up with information to fill it. I also discovered that I enjoy writing If given the chance of what to write about and having very few requirements. I have noticed that when I read things I now look at them more critically and analyze what is happening then creating my own conclusions to see if they match up with what the author intended to do. In doing so I now look differently at books and movies that I have read or seen. By thinking about the different literary lenses that we discuss; to see if I can discover more meaning to what the creator did and why they might have done it,
1. The first poem I connected with is Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Man-Moth”. This poem is interesting to me because it focuses on a combination of a man and a moth. The point of this poem is that it points out how the man-moth does things without thinking of all the negative things that could happen. He is not afraid to do things and fail. The poem says that he must do what he fears most. I connect to this because sometimes I overthink things too much and this poem shows us that we should not overthink things. The next poem that I connected with was “This be the Verse” by Philip Larkin. This poem shares a very, very negative outlook on life. In his opinion humanity basically is just a bunch of people passing down negative traits to their children, further ruining humanity. I can relate to this, not that I agree with him, however. I notice that a lot of my faults that I find in myself can also be found in my parents. It is very odd, but without even really realizing it, most children are usually a mirror image of their parents in some regards.
2. I have learned a lot in this class. I learned about myself from the writing, but I primarily learned a lot about myself from the reading. I usually do not read super often and this class forced me to read. I have not read regularly for so long and I forgot that sometimes if a book is interesting to me I actually enjoy reading a lot. The book I most enjoyed reading this year was Life of Pi. Compared to other books, this was not very difficult to read for me. A large part of Intro to Literature is learning to go farther with books and examine things at a deeper level. Since this semester started, I have caught myself analyzing other books, TV Shows, and movies to a higher level too. I also have learned that I don’t hate using the reading/writing side of my brain as much as I thought I did. In some instances, I have actually really enjoyed reading and writing. If I enjoy what I am reading/writing about, it comes easier to me.
The first poem I read was "There is another sky" by Emily Dickinson. The overall meaning I extracted from this poem was that you have to create your own type of happy place so that all your time and energy are not wasted. I felt that I could relate to this poem because sports are my “garden”. Being on the field is my time and place to focus on what truly makes me happy and feel alive. Within this poem, Dickinson is speaking to her brother Austin and trying to explain that creating a “happy place” allows you to have control over the world instead of the world having control over you. The second poem I read was "O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman. I could relate to this poem because just like Whitman I feel that society has pushed people to compare themselves to everyone around them. When we do this we are simply wasting our time because many of us forget that we were made and put where we are for a reason. Our pure existence is a blessing and we should never take granted!
What I’ve learned about myself through reading this year is how open I am to hearing all the different ways to analyze literature. Not only did I learn to listen to my peers' interpretations and discuss them in detail but I was also able to create my own perceptions and elaborate with specific textual evidence why I thought what I did. Through writing this semester I have learned how capable I am to share my thoughts so that they are easy to understand. I learned that I can elaborate and even teach what I interpreted a text to mean by simply explaining it in detail in my essays. Both reading and writing this semester have allowed me to expand my creativity and dive deeper into the meanings of literary works. What I learned most about myself is that I do not like books that explicitly state what the theme or message is meant to be. I enjoy making my own assumptions based purely off of what the piece of literature means to me.
"O Me, O Life" by Walt Whitman was the first poem I read. At this point in my life, I am quite unsure of my future. For me, it's very difficult to find and focus on a clear purpose at this time. I found a bit of reassurance in this poem, especially in the statement that there is purpose in the fact "that life exists, and identity" and that I "will contribute a verse" to the world no matter what. One thing I question about this poem is Whitman's use of the word "faithless" in a negative connotation. Does he mean without religious faith, or without faith in one's future or self? Either way, my life has so much in common.
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is the second poem I read. This one is absolutely packed. In the poem, Prufrock struggles with so many things. My struggles have less to do with women as Prufrock's do, but otherwise, I can connect to just about every element of this poem. The way I interpreted it, the poem is all about fear. Fear of failure, fear of judgement, fear of losing time, fear of death, and most of all, the fear of being unable to interact and correctly self-define or self-proclaim. I fear all of the above, just as Prufrock does in the poem, but I especially connect with the last fear I mentioned. I have always struggled with this in two ways: I struggle in everyday communication with others and also with the expression of myself through modes that I find most fit. The everyday communication struggle sounds almost childish and I'm quite embarrassed of it, but hey, who's going to read this anyway. I get nervous. I worry about being judged. I struggle to speak well. Just simple things that chip and tear at me, just like they do to Prufrock. As for expression, Eliot, through Prufrock, does not mention art at all, but my interpretation of the line "It is impossible to say just what I mean!" led me to think in all contexts. After all, we all say much more than what leaves our mouths. I love art, whether it be that which appeals to the eyes or ears, and I think it's easily the best way to, well, say just what you mean. When I struggle to communicate in a conventional way, I turn to these other methods like art in order to better convey ideas and purpose. I have an untiring desire to do express myself in these ways, but it is easily one of the hardest things I have done so far. I want to break through, but the path that leads to such an event is not a smooth one. It is one full of fear, confusion, and doubt. All things that Prufrock felt.
I'm pretty happy I took this class, and I enjoyed it more than I have any other high school class. There aren't many times in high school when students are given the opportunity to be even a bit creative (something that absolutely needs to change), and I think this class branched out significantly from this norm. I felt as if I was writing the story, in a sense, instead of having the story being written for me. This feeling is very freeing, even in small quantities. As for the path to the new means of expression that I just talked about, this class actually propelled me along. I was exposed to new, irregular ideas, from both external sources and from within myself. And while my conventional communication skills still are not up to par, I feel much farther along in creating other ways to "contribute a verse" (just as Whitman writes) because of this class.
“The Addict” by Anne Sexton
When I first read this poem I thought immediately about drug users and how drugs can ruin one’s life. Throughout the poem, Sexton describes the use of drugs as “chemical kisses”. After doing some more research into Sexton I found out that she suffered from mental illnesses. This means that these drugs that she is using could be hurting her but also benefiting her. This then led me to think about all of the pharmaceutical drugs that people take like painkillers and antidepressants. These drugs are made to help you but can end up harming you in the long run if you get addicted to them. While I do not suffer from addiction to drugs, everyone is addicted to something to some extent. Whether that is working out, video games, even school. These are things that can be positive or negative but can be addictive either way.
“A narrow fellow in the grass” by Emily Dickinson
This poem I can connect with way more than “The Addict”. This poem is about fear and being scared of being lied to or deceived. Most of the time we, as humans, are more scared at the thought of doing something than actually doing it. Once we do the action we realize that it isn’t that bad and we realize our fear was pointless.
Throughout this semester I have learned a great deal about myself and my priorities. For example, after reading Life of Pi I understood that I am the type of person who always wants to believe. I want to believe that the story of Pi and Richard Parker is true because it is more interesting than the idea that Pi survived by himself for such a long time. Secondly, in Life of Pi, I believe in the island. I believe that everything is possible and could happen so therefore it did happen. Another thing I have learned about myself throughout this semester is that I don’t believe that there is one correct answer for everything. Most tasks in life have multiple ways to do or achieve them and once you open up your mind to these ideas it makes you smarter and a more understanding person.
"A narrow fellow in the Grass" by Emily Dickinson
This poem is mainly about the "snake in the grass" which is usually an animal known for deceiving and betraying people. In the poem, the man is walking along in the grass when he spots something that looks like a rope to him. When he stops to pick it up it slithers away. This snake deceived the man just like how first looks can deceive humans. It is our nature that when we first see someone we decide to judge by our first looks without getting to know them just like the man in this poem. But, when getting closer or getting to know the person it is much different than what the person assumed.
Whitman "O Me! O Life!"
I can connect to this poem because Whitman talks about "eyes that vainly crave the light" which means how he was focused on a goal which was a foolish mistake for himself. this poem is meant to teach us all that we all have a purpose in life and we are meant to contribute to society just by living and not by chasing a foolish goal.
One major theme that I have learned about myself is that I enjoy reading much more than I realized I did. During class, there were many times when I was reading Life of Pi or Lord of the Flies when I just zone into the book and don't even pay attention to the time or page number. After what feels like 5 minutes the bells rings and I realize that I am way past the page number of what was due for that Friday. Another thing that I have learned about myself is how to use my imagination and creativity more to expand my writing ability. My writing used to be very bland and plain but after reading works and working on essays for the two semesters I have realized how much better my writing has gotten over time. I have also realized how much easier it is for me to write longer and more entertaining essays. For the first essay, I struggled coming up with ideas for the essay but slowly it became easier and easier for me to write the essays naturally.
1. The two poems that I chose to read were “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. I sort of connect personally with Brooks’ poem because I am the exact opposite of it. The poem says that “we sing sin, we thin gin” which implies that whoever Brooks wrote about are kids who dropped out of school early and partied around all the time, doing illegal activities. I connect with this poem because instead of doing that stuff, I get to watch others in my life do that. I am an outsider, but I am okay with being one so I do not ruin my life. I can connect with Dylan Thomas’s poem because I think the meaning of the poem is to never go down without a fight. Repeatedly throughout the poem, Thomas gives examples of men near death, but then he tells them to “not go gentle into that good night” or he says “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” The reason why I connect with it is because no matter how much life pushes me down, I will always get back up and fight back.
2. Through reading and writing, I have learned how to properly write stories this semester. I like to write, my imagination goes absolutely crazy if I do not do anything with it. Before the school year started, my writing was less than superb. I could not properly introduce characters, settings, or plot without them just jumping out. Through reading the novels and short stories that were assigned to us, I picked up how to properly introduce things in my own stories. Though I only have one chapter in my story right now, after these two semesters, I feel as if my summer will be spent writing a lot. Another aspect of my writing that needed great improvement was my symbolism and foreshadowing. I knew and still know, that I really want some of each in my story, however, I did not know how to execute that without it being too obvious. With reading so many great novels and their reviews, that issue should not be a problem for me in the future.
I chose to read the poem "The Hammock" by Li-Young Lee. I connected to this poem because it talks about the meaning of life and why we have a set purpose. In the poem, Lee talks about families such as the connection between himself and his mother. His main question is "what happens to loved ones when they die? Is there an afterlife, or does life just stop?" I can connect to this because I have a very good relationship and connection with my mother who has always helped me whenever I needed it. I do believe there is more after this lifetime. The second poem I decided to read was "O me! O Life", by Walt Whitman. His poem talks about the never-ending possibilities in life. He also talks about how there is so much to see in our world. I connect to this because it is just like going off to college. There is so much to look forward to.
I have always enjoyed reading and writing, but these last 5 years or so have been tough. Tough because I was never given any freedom. In other classes, it was always "everyone writes the same exact essay." I wanted to be able to add my own take to writing instead of just filling words on a page because that's what I was told to do. I think in this class I was able to finally realize that writing can be enjoyable if one is given the freedom and opportunity to express a new idea. This was the main reason I loved this class. I was given options and freedom to find out what I liked doing. This, I think, has given me more to build on and enjoyment in the years to come than anything else any other teacher has said or gave me in the past. This is what I learned about myself through reading and writing this semester.
I read the poem "O Me! O Life!" Whitman
I thought it contributed to every reader because it talked about how important your own life is. When Whitman says, "The powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse", he definitely means life goes on no matter what and you will contribute to how your life will be. I believe he is saying life will go on no matter the circumstances.
I also read the poem "There is another sky" Dickinson
I believe Dickinson wants to spread positivity from this poem because she always talks about the beautiful garden. I feel everyone has their own way of bringing themselves to positivity and Dickinson is talking about her way of doing so. Not only is she talking about herself, but she is also trying to tell other people to be more positive as well. I believe the same as well that positivity changes a lot about how a day can go for anyone.
One definite thing that I learned about myself this year was involving my writing. When I used to write I used to always use words like "there is" and "there was" after I finished a sentence. Once I realized I am not supposed to do that in an essay, it took a lot to break that habit. However, my essays became so much more interesting when I had to come up with a way better way to start a sentence instead of "there is". It made me discover the insane increase of more eventful writing in my essay and not writing like a fifth-grader. My essays became much easier to read due to the more creative writing. I did not have a really boring essay anymore and it made me realize a lot about my writing once I had to force myself not to do it. I became more creative in my writing and it will greatly help me in the future.
In "The Hammock" by Li-Young Lee, it starts off by saying, "waiting inside my mother's singing to herself." This line reminds me of my mother because she always used to sing to me as a little kid to help calm me down. Even now if she knows I've had a very bad day she will sing just to make me feel better even though I say I don't want her to. The poem also says, "When I lay my head in my mother's lap." My mother loves to cuddle especially when I am not feeling well or if I am down in the dumps. The second poem that I can relate to is Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool." The line "We Jazz June," relates to me and my family because we all love to kick back and listen to music during the summer. It is one of our favorite things to do just sitting on the beach and listen to music.
Through reading and writing this semester, I have grown in more ways than one. I have never really been into reading and writing but this class has opened up a new light for me. I find myself enjoying writing certain essays for this class. I also have noticed I think more in-depth and beneath the surface of the words on the pages. I never would've found myself liking books that are required but this year was different. I found myself more engaged with all of the books we had to read this year and looking at all the books with different lenses. Before this year I did very poorly on my English portion of the ACT but after being in this class and engaging myself more than I used to I found I could flourish and increased my score tremendously.
The first poem I read was “This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin. This short poem describes how specific traits and ideas travel through the generations of a family. Larkin describes how faults travel from parents to children. I instantly felt a connection with this as I have seen traits that were passed from generation to generation in my family. My grandfather was born in South Dakota, but he inherited the thick German accent of his ancestors. He spoke with such a strong accent that he couldn’t pronounce some English words correctly, even though he was born around half a century after his ancestors left Europe. Along with this, other traits have been passed through my family. My other grandfather’s family was filled with alcohol addicts. My grandfather was never a drinker, but his father, grandfather, uncles, and brothers were all heavy drinkers who ultimately suffered severe health effects from their choices.
The second poem I read was “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. Dylan makes numerous references to death and how people die. Naturally, it can be very hard to relate to death on a personal level. I have never personally died (obviously), but I have seen others die. One that sticks out to me was my friend Brian. Brian was a helper at my youth group who I talked to often. He was a great role model and an example of someone who consciously tried to be a better person in all aspects of his life. The reason his death is notable to me is how others reacted to it. Even though he died relatively young in his early 50s, all those who knew him agreed that he had lived a good life and had had a lasting impact on all those around him. Instead of a time of sadness, his funeral was a celebration of all he had done. The members of my youth group who knew him now know a saying that goes as such “Live like Bryan”. This is a reminder to do the best that you can in all aspects of your life.
Throughout this semester I have read a number of books that tackle a wider range of topics. When I started this class I thought that the topics would be about something boring or lame. I was surprised that the writing tackled subjects that challenged me and made me think. One of the biggest surprises is that they made me evaluate myself and think of what kind of person I am. Because of this challenging thought, I am able to see my flaws and make myself better.
1. I chose to read the poem "There Is Another Sky" by Emily Dickinson. I believe that the story is about how even though things look tough right now, there is always a future to look forward to. She states that there is "another sunshine" although darkness may occur. This message is really important to me because while the present might suck, the future is brighter. I had hard times in middle school and always looked to high school as my escape. In most ways, it was because I looked at the information in a new light and started to focus on more important things in my life rather than the small things. I looked toward the greener side of things and while they might not be always the greenest they are better than before. By looking on the brighter side of things, I was able to see information more clearly and not as a direct attack in a way.
2. I have learned many things about myself throughout the year. The world is much bigger than it really seems. I learned about others' struggles and how other people interpret different messages. Doing the circles of students talking about the book was interesting because I was able to see how other people thought things through and what they thought was going to happen next. The writing portion of the year was a little less fun. I liked having the freedom to write whatever I wanted but writing that much got repetitive very quickly. It felt like each day was the same and some of the topics were challenging but I pursued through.
The first poem I read was "O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman. In this poem, Walt talks about everyday life and what good he and others have to do with it. It is portraying what everyone contributes to the world's everyday life. I can relate to this because I believe that each day brings a new challenge and is very important. This also portrays that the little things matter, because one should not spend their whole life focused on one big goal and miss out on the small important things every day. The second poem I read was "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. This poem talks about not giving up even in the roughest times. Everyone can relate to this poem because people need to never give up. No matter how hard things get never give up. Everyone needs to keep that thought in mind.
Through this last year, I have learned many things. One is how to completely dissect a book and break it down to find the hidden meanings. I learned that not only are authors writing to tell a story but to give off more than one lesson. Through reading books such as Life of Pi or Beatrice and Virgil I have learned to look for the deeper meaning beyond the text and put on a lens to help me do so. I have also learned that even though a book is a fiction does not mean as a whole, the book is entirely made up or fake. Martel used this to describe real events in many different ways such as his depiction of the holocaust through Beatrice and Virgil. The class Composition and Literature, has helped me become a better reader and helped me to figure out the deeper meaning behind books.
1. Whitman "O Me! O Life!
When I first read the poem "O Me! O Life!" I thought it was mainly talking about the urban or city lifestyle and what is wrong with it. Being from South Dakota, I am not sure I would be able to relate to the poem. However, after reading the poem again, I can see that it is talking about much more than just an urban lifestyle. It is talking about how every individual person has a purpose in life and we should not just throw it away by making immoral decisions.
2. Dickinson "There is another sky"
This poem directly relates to the first poem I read. The first poem is talking about how everyone has a bright future and should make good decisions, and this poem is talking about how dark the world is and how easy it could be to fall into temptation. For example, if you give in to the darkness that Dickinson describes, then you might mess up your future or sacrifice your future for something that is not worth it. Dickinson also tells about how it may look like a sun shining, but in fact it is actually the darkness. This is similar to how some activities may look like fun, but they are actually desructive.
Through reading and writing, I have learned a lot about myself this semester. I have always enjoyed writing, but I never seemed to have found time to write. Because I took this class, I was forced to write, but I actually enjoyed it. Also, I have almost never been able to sit down and read a book. It is just too boring, but I did it because it was a requirement up until this year with Life of Pi. I had to force myself to keep reading some of the books in this class, but I really enjoyed Life of Pi and Pi's story of survival and going away from human nature really intrigued me. I also learned that I liked this story so much because it is relatable. Not the part about following different religions, or being stranded on a boat, but I relate to Pi because I feel like I also have two sides of myself. I have myself and then I have doubt, jealousy, and anger that I need to learn to tame, similar to Pi.
The first poem I read was “the hammock” by Li-Young Lee, and near the beginning, it says a line about his mother being inside singing. This connects to my family a lot because my mother is always singing. Doesn’t matter the day or time if she has a tune in her head she is singing. My mother sings for her children or just any song and it is not uncommon for me to come back from the track to her singing in the kitchen. The second poem I read was O Me! O Life! This poem was about the power and importance of life. I think this relates to many students because of how we are taking this next chapter of our life off to college or the workforce. The poem has a line that states “The powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse”. Meaning that life goes on and somehow, someway we will contribute to it in our own unique way.
This semester through reading and writing I have realized just how much I can really accomplish. Normally I am not one to write essays and usually go with the alternative route. This year I accomplished some feats I never would have thought of. Some of these include writing an eight-page essay over one chapter in the life of Pi. Especially when that chapter totals a whopping nine sentences. But I completed it with no problems and even chose to undertake the task of writing the twenty-two-page essay for the final exam. Never once in my life did I ever think I would willingly choose to write twenty-two pages for an assignment but I chose it. Not only did I choose it, but I also haven't stressed about it since I began, the words come easy and the topic seems to be one of endless thought. At the start of the year, there was no chance I would accept this assignment but after numerous stories and practice writing, this was one to look forward to.
I started with the poem, "O Me!" O Life!" by Walt Whitman. I found that I connect to this poem in many ways. Often I find myself wondering what I will be and what contributions I will make to the world. I obviously have some dreams and aspirations to do something big for the world but I never really know what that would be. By analyzing this poem I find that the author also questions what he will do in his life that will affect the world and if he will do anything ever that would affect the world. At the end of the poem, there is a section that says answer which I took to mean the answer to his many questions about his purpose in life. I relate to this section of the poem because I am religious and I believe that God has made everyone have a purpose in their lives and they were made with a purpose. That being said I agree and connect with the part where he says that everyone has a purpose.
The second Poem I dove into was by Li-Young Lee called, “The Hammock”. I connect with this poem because I remember laying in my mother's lap when I was little wondering if I was ever going to grow up someday. I remember questioning everything and thinking I would always stay that same age and she would hers and nothing would ever change. Now I am a senior in high school and I am going off to college next year and won't get to see my family every day. One day I will have my own child and I know I will always be wondering what they are thinking and wondering if I am doing a good enough job.
By reading and writing this semester, I have learned that I initially look at everything as trustworthy and honest. I have learned this through constant analysis of text and then writing about it. I always seem to have an initial feeling that whatever we are analyzing is how it seems and never is bad or has bad intentions toward someone. I also found that I can think a lot deeper than I ever knew. Literature has so many things that can be looked at from different perspectives. I learned that I could have understood a section completely different than everyone else in the room which I love. I also learned that I have gotten a lot better at analyzing things to a further extent. I learned that now I can look at a piece of literature and pick out 5 different things it could mean. Overall I found that I am too trusting of outside things because a lot of times the pieces do have bad intentions that I never saw coming.
I first read the poem, "O Me, O Life!" In this poem, Walt is mainly speaking about everyday life and the impact that everyone has on it. I can relate to this story because each day brings a new mystery. Whether it be good or bad there will be a challenge. Another point that I took out of this poem is that you should not overlook the little things in life. It is good to have the main goal in life, but once in a while, we need to slow down and just enjoy where we are.
In the second poem, "The Hammock", in the beginning, there is a mother singing. I can relate to this in some way because each day I come home from work, it can be at six o clock or 10 o clock and my sister will always be in the kitchen dancing her heart out. I think that this is a good thing because it shows her passion and what she enjoys doing.
In this semester of class, I have learned that I am way more capable of accomplishing tasks than I thought I was. Over the last four years of high school, I never really enjoyed reading or writing. I realized this semester that I just have to put in the time to actually read the book and not just skim over the major details. An example of this is when reading "Lord of the Flies", I thought that I would never enjoy it. But after getting through the beginning of the book I started to actually enjoy it and had a lot of fun reading it. With writing, I always thought that it would be hard to write this last essay. Now that I am writing it, and I chose a topic that I want to write about I am really enjoying it. If it is an essay where I can truly answer in my own words or make up a story, I will write it any day.
I read Emily Dickinson’s poem “There is another sky”. I connected with this poem because it talks about all the wonderful things that are often found in nature, typically during the summertime. I thought that this poem also related a more biblical sense. I think it is relating to either heaven or a garden of Eden. The second poem I read was another poem written by Emily Dickinson. This poem is called “A narrow fellow in the grass”. This poem also mentions a nature scene. While the other poem talked about the setting, this poem talked about the actual person who is alone. I think that the person could either be Adam or God if we look at the same literary lens. I think it is interesting how both poems while being written by the same person, are completely different from each other. I liked how they both could relate to each other by looking at the poems through a literary lens.
Through my reading and writing this semester, I have seen growth in my sentence structures. I noticed that at the beginning of the year I would stress about my essays. Later on, as I got more comfortable with writing, I was able to not see them as a challenge but more of an opportunity to express myself on paper. I think the techniques that I have learned throughout this class will help me in any future classes. I also think that the literary lenses I have used in reading will help analyze any other texts that I have to read in college. I think that future professors would be impressed by me being able to apply this sort of technique to any of the assigned readings. I have also found it interesting to use the lenses to pick apart tiny details in the literature. I think of it as like a puzzle that each lens solves a different portion by putting all of the clues together that the author puts in his writing.
To begin, I read and analyzed Emily Dickinson’s “There Is Another Sky”–an imagery-packed poem that speaks of a beautiful place where people are always at peace and at home. The poem was originally composed alongside a letter begging her brother to return home. As an older sister to two younger brothers, I understand the desire to have them home with me where I can make sure they are safe and happy. Her words beautifully describe a heavenly, Garden-of-Eden-like place, encouraging her brother to return to her and enjoy such comfort. I understood the author’s desire to bring her brother home to her once more. Her beautiful, lyrical writing would make anyone miss the comfort and warmth of home-sweet-home. The second piece I read was Li-Young Lee’s “The Hammock”. Lee’s poem resonated deeply with me as it carried a tone of existential questioning, yet intriguing perspective. He speaks of living with a window of time: the time after his mother’s hopes for him and the time before his child’s ideas of him. It was an interesting idea that I had not pondered before, but I found fascinating. His beautiful use of words and rhythm caught my attention, and I loved the message of his work. I enjoyed his use of various perspectives, yet his acknowledgment of never fully understanding other’s thoughts. Both poems were wonderfully composed and resonated with me more personally than the others I had read.
Composition and introduction to literature have opened many students’ eyes to the fascinating world of literary theory and its applications, including my own. While the educational portion of the class was fascinating and positively challenging, there were many other, more personal developments that were made for each student, including my own. I was able to work on my time management—a skill that is necessary for college. I also found more efficient ways to compose essays, plan out reading tracks, and find the motivation to stay focused even when I did not want to. The analysis skills gained changed how I approach various situations and problems (although I doubt I will ever be able to watch a movie without analyzing it). I developed the ability to find passion in any essay topic, regardless of whether or not I got to select the topic. There were enlivening discussions about novels that also helped my social skills and ability to understand various perspectives. Overall, the skills developed in the class have improved my ability to be a successful student as well as improved my enjoyment of literature, composition, movies, and more.
The first poem I read was "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. I really enjoyed this short and concise poem about being a bit rebellious and what life entails. I can relate to this poem by being a teenager and especially relate it to my earlier years of high school. Freshman/sophomore year my friends and I thought we were really cool. We would stay out late all hanging out in our friends' basement just sharing funny stories and laughing the night away. We would screen at the top of our lungs our favorite songs in the car. There has always been a handful of songs that all of us know and love. This poem also describes all the fun times you have, but it all goes by in the blink of an eye because life is so short. The second poem I read is called "There Is Another Sky" by Emily Dickinson. I relate to this poem by having the mindset that there is always something more people, things, and life have to offer. That no matter what "there is another sky," and where there is darkness somewhere else there is sunlight!
Through reading and writing this semester I have learned so much more about myself. I learned that I actually composing essays and I feel that they broaden my intelligence. I learned how to be able to express myself and what I believe through my writing, it is almost a form of therapy. When writing about topics I am passionate about I feel my true self is revealed. Through reading, I have learned that I actually enjoy it most of the time. If I just sit down and allow myself to be still and read it calms me down and I no longer feel the stress I had been feeling earlier. Another thing I have learned about myself through reading is that I am able to better understand a novel when I put a different lens on and analyze it from a different perspective. Through reading and writing, I have found my weak spots that I need to be working on going into college, but I have also found my strengths.
The first poem I read was Li-Young Lee's "The Hammock" in which she writes about being stuck in a time period between being a child in her mother's lap and being a mother herself. I feel like I can really relate to this poem because I feel like I am in that time frame at the moment. Graduating high school has made me feel like my childhood is coming to an end, which makes me sad. I think of leaving for college and not having my parents guide me through things. However, I also think about having freedoms and being able to start fresh, meet new people, and experience new things. That is what this poem reminds me of. The second poem I read was Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool". I fairly enjoyed this poem because of its quick, playful wording. This poem reminds me of the summertime. It feels carefree like nothing is ever so serious.
I feel like I have grown so much this semester in my reading and writing. I remember Mr. C saying before this course that we would start looking at everything through literary lenses and I can confidently say that it is so true. I find myself over-analyzing nearly everything I read or watch. I make deeper connections with movies and TV shows unintentionally. As for my writing, I believe I am much more confident in writing essays. My manifesto has been challenging, but it is thrilling at the same time. I have grown to love writing essays and researching topics. I am so glad I chose to take this course because I really think it has prepared me for college by expanding my knowledge and training me to look into the deeper meanings of things.
The poem I picked was “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. After doing some research on Sexton I found out that she struggled with a mental illness and to me, this poem represents the painkillers and depressants that people with mental illness use to help. Although these drugs may help in the short term, long term they are very addicting. In 2019 alone 50,000 people died from opioid overdoes in the United States. This is a very serious and dangerous cause that is taking over the world not just the united states. Sexton describes these pharmaceutical drugs as “chemical kisses”. She describes the painkillers as “The pills are a mother, but better,” then proceeds to talk about the colors and how they like sour balls as in candy. She ends the poem with “now I am numb” these pharmaceutical drugs change and make people act differently causing them to feel numb as if they are nothing. Although I am not addicted to drugs I feel like I am connected to this poem because addiction is all around us, in many different forms, not just drugs. The second poem I choose was also by Sexton called “After Auschwitz” and this was basically about how terrible the nazis were and how she doesn’t understand how a man could ever do such a thing. I connected with this poem because I can’t fathom how someone could do such things to another human.
Throughout this semester I learned a lot about my reading and writing skills. I always thought English was my worst subject but learning about things such as literary devices has helped me become not only a better reading but also a better writer. I can break down the deeper meaning and find out what the author was really trying to point out. When first coming into this class I felt like I couldn’t write essays and the reason I took this class was to get a head start for college essays. I feel like this class has prepared me in a way I didn’t think I was capable of.
The first poem I read was “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. This poem describes possibilities of what the Second Coming of Christ will be like. At the beginning of the Poem, we can see how there is chaos and pain in the waiting. This can be related to the begging of COVID. When the pandemic first hit us, we had to quarantine until a solution was found. In doing this, disruption and chaos broke out amongst people, and waiting became unbearable. After the terror and waiting in the poem, a day comes when the main character thinks there must be a second coming approaching. In quarantine, many of us kept hope and still have hope that one-day things will return to normal again. The second poem I read was “O me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman. In this poem, we see the ongoing possibility of life and how it oftentimes gets overwhelming. This can be related to many peoples’ lives. Especially in high school, stress and obligations often make people overwhelmed and planning for the future adds an extra responsibility.
English has always been a strong subject for me in school. Through reading and writing, I have learned how I best express myself, and has given me another outlet to speak my voice and opinions. I have been able to be creative and use my own thoughts and ideas to convey a message to an audience. Reading has allowed me to escape reality for a moment and dive into a fictional world. Also, learning lessons from the characters and situations in each novel has given me a perspective on life and how to approach certain situations. This year has prepared me for reading and writing at a college level and I feel that I will use the skills I have gained from this class both in my future years of schooling, as well as in the real world of work. Finding my style of writing and what I enjoy reading has opened my eyes to a whole new world of creativity and possibility.
One of the personal connections I felt was with, “The Second Coming”. Over the last year, there have been several times where it felt like everything was falling down around me and this poem really reminded me of that. The quote “Things fall apart; the centre can not hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” really resonates with me. After a pandemic that pulled apart our everyday lives and a run of government instability, this line sums up the last year of my life. Another poem that resonates with me is “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. It is the same idea as the last poem. After the year we have had it would be so easy for us to give up. This poem tells us to keep fighting to stay alive even when things are hard. I think this is a good message because it not only is about life but it is about anything. There are lots of things I would like to give up because they are hard but I do not because I know overall they are good for me.
I really liked both the reading and the writing this semester. Usually English is one of my least favorite classes not because of the subject material but because of how the subject material was taught. I find that oftentimes teachers, and especially English teachers, have only one way to do anything and that makes it difficult if you do not understand how that way works. This semester has been much more open for interpretation in its subject material. In past English classes, there was set symbolism that you had to find and interpret in one specific way or it was wrong. This semester is open to everyone's ideas because we all view the material differently and I like that. The novels were very good. They were of different variety and styles but all were entertaining and made the work enjoyable. The writing has been fun because it is less about following rules but explaining your thought process and what you see in any of the novels.
Li-Young Lee wrote “The Hammock”. The poem is talking about the unknown on either side of one’s life. Our experiences, hopes, and dreams are bundled in between ones that came before us and ones that will outlive us. Similarly in Bishop’s “The Man-Moth” the moth must face what he fears the most. Although each time he fails, he is not hurt. Instead he gets up and tries again the next time. I connected with these poems, as any one can, because the world is filled with unknowns. I see them every day in how a situation is going to play out to what my future looks like after high school. Facing my fear of the unknown is something that continually needs to be worked on. I can do this by facing one small challenge at a time just like the person in the poem remembers their mother singing and facing each day and the man-moth fearlessly climbing with perseverance.
This semester I have learned that writing is a powerful tool to connect with people and one that is easily accessible to me. Everyone can pick out different messages from a piece of work but it doesn’t really matter what that may be, because it all came from the same source. This communication is a connecting factor that I was able to learn about and how to use properly this semester during both forums and other random conversations outside of class. I strengthened my ability to listen intently to others opinions and appreciate different perspectives. I think that this is a crucial skill to have going out into the world where meeting new people is a more common thing. I will take all these lessons with me and continue to use them to see, hear, and experience more. But also to pick out the things that are important to me personally in each stage of my life.
I chose to read Daddy by Sylvia Plath. The theme that I took from this poem is that you should not let people who do not deserve your time control your life. Towards the end of the poem Plath says that "If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two—The vampire who said he was you And drank my blood for a year, Seven years, if you want to know. Daddy, you can lie back now. There’s a stake in your fat black heart And the villagers never liked you. They are dancing and stamping on you. They always knew it was you. Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through." This is in reference to Plath's husband who she had recently divorced before writing this poem, and her father who she did not have the most stable relationship with. Plath is finally overcoming these men who up to that point in her life had complete control over her. The second Poem I read was Do not go gentle into that good night. I chose this poem because I recognized that it is in the Interstellar Soundtrack and I love that Soundtrack. This poem is about how you should not just accept death, you should fight it at every turn. This is a very powerful poem because how it shows how death helps remind you how truly precious your life is.
Through reading and writing this semester and throughout this entire school year I learned that I do have what it takes to write quality essays. Before this year I believed that I simply could not write well even if I tried hard to do so, so I didn't try hard to succeed. But this year I was forced outside of my comfort zone and was forced to write for both length and quality. This forced me to grow not only as a writer and a learner but as a person as well.
The first poem that I read was Li-Young Lee's "The Hammock." I made a personal connection to this poem from the line that said "I don't know what my mother's thinking." Earlier in the poem, it explains that his mother used to carry him on her back to and from school. When children are younger, they stick around their parents because they are the children's best friends. The kids share everything they can with their parents because they like feeling that personal connection. As we get older, we spend our time with many other children, making personal connections to them. We naturally grow away from our parents slightly, forming stronger friendships in different places. The second poem that I read was Yeats' "The Second Coming." In this poem, the line that specifically stood out to me was "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" because not everything I envisioned happening throughout high school did happen. For instance, I never thought I would live through a pandemic and have to go online half of my junior year. The career I thought I would be going in at the start of high school and at the end of high school changed significantly.
Throughout the semester, the thing that I learned most about myself is the ability to write essays. In previous years, everyone dreaded writing essays, even though we had about one or two a year. Usually, I would try to make every sentence perfect and not try to tell a story through my words. I would be a little bit too "uptight" with what I wrote and I found it more of an obligation than a chance to tell a story. I learned if I wrote a very minimal outline with just keywords rather than sentences, essays would come more easily.
The first poem I read was “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. A while back I had actually looked into this poem and the meaning behind it due to the movie Interstellar. I kept hearing snippets of the poem throughout the movie and had decided to lookup an audio recording of the entire version of it. The meaning behind the poem revealed to be about Thomas’s dad and Thomas encouraging him not to slip into death but to put up a fight. The poem resonates with me as a reminder to try to live life the fullest you can so that when it comes time for death you can remember how good life was for you as one day we will all be faced with “night”. The second poem I read was “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. This poem touches upon the unknown with the things that are closest to us. It explains the family dynamic of going through the same situations but not knowing completely what the other is thinking which is something we experience every day. The feeling the writer describes in the first part of the poem is how I remember feeling about my mom or family members when I was younger. Each day as I grow older and interact with others I can relate more and more to the feeling the writer describes in the second half of the poem.
With writing in the first semester, I learned that writing can actually be enjoyable. When I am able to express my thoughts into solid cohesive sentences I get a sense of achievement and feel satisfied with myself. I have also learned that I am not as bad at writing as I previously thought. Due to the lack of practice or writing assignments with the previous English courses I had taken throughout high school I had this notion in my head that I wasn’t good at it simply because I hadn’t really done it all that much. With each book we read this semester, I was able to take away a lesson and learn something from it. I learned that I actually quite enjoy reading because of the ability to feel grounded and only focus on one thing and feel like you are in a different time in a different world. I have also realized how beneficial it is for me to talk about the items I have been reading to gain new perspectives on how certain texts can be interpreted. I gain a lot more from forums than through tests.
The first poem I read was “There is Another Sky” by Emily Dickinson. The poem is very uplifting and speaks of another world where happiness is abundant and never-ending—a world that I perceive as Heaven. The poem states that Heaven does exist. It is not some make-believe fantasy, but a reality. Emily states that “There is another sky…though it be darkness there.” Emily is stating that Heaven does exist, although it is currently in “darkness” or is not visible to us. In our current world of sickness and unpredictability, hope is often what gets many people through. The hope of a healthier future, of calmer times, of a happy ending—all of these serve as motivation for people to continue on and find happiness in every day. I feel that the hope of a better future and of one day reaching Heaven is enough motivation to live a happy and successful life now, and Emily seems to understand this as well. The Second poem I read was “At the Globe with Shakespeare,” and I found it very interesting. After watching the movie version of Othello in class, I have wondered what Shakespeare would have thought about the movie adaption. Would he have liked it? Would he have criticized it? Or would he simply have been too busy marveling at the world advancements to critique the movie? I believe the author captured the inquisitive side of Shakespeare as he explored the new world.
Through this semester, I have learned how to examine what I observe to a deeper degree. This includes not just reading and writing, but also includes activities like watching movies or listening to music or looking at art. Being able to extract a bigger purpose from a work of art is not only useful to help one understand the piece, but it makes art more meaningful and enjoyable. In previous English classes, I have studied the basic skills of writing and reading, like looking for symbols and similes, or allusions and analogies. However, this class has taught me how to recognize these literary devices and many more, and even incorporate them into my own pieces of art. These are skills that will not only help me through college, but will help me through a lifetime of learning. In addition, looking at literature in the pursuit of a deeper meaning can lead us to better understand cultures and different groups of people, a skill that I feel has personally improved throughout the course of this year.
The first story I read was “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Upon reading the poem, it is apparent that the story is about a bunch of students who dropped out of school whose lives are quickly deteriorating. As a high school student that is about to graduate, I can relate to this on a personal level. Sometimes it feels easier to just give up on higher education and live like these kids.
The other poem that I read was “There is Another Sky” by Emily Dickinson. In this poem, the main character is describing what seems like a perfect world to her brother, Austin. She talks about her perfect world like it is a real thing, an escape from their current troubles. I think everyone can relate to this story to some extent, as it can be applied to many aspects of our imperfect world.
Last year in English class, we only ever had to write a couple essays, all of which I almost failed. I have no idea what happened between last year and this year, but I feel like my writing style has improved immensely. I have also learned that writing a book takes a lot longer than I thought. Martel takes around 10 years to write each of his novels, but that still seems like a lot of time to produce a novel. Yann Martel’s writing style was refreshing to me, as I did not much enjoy the Honors English 11 novels. The novels we read last year were all directly related to current issues, and I liked Life Of Pi because it was imaginative and fun.
The first poem I read was "There is Another Sky" by Emily Dickinson. In the poem, the narrator tells someone named Austin about a beautiful place. I liked this poem because it felt hopeful to me. I connected with this because it reminded me of how I kept myself motivated during the winter when I struggled with seasonal depression and felt hopeless. I tried to keep myself positive by thinking about how wonderful things would be in the spring and summer, kind of like the magical place Dickinson describes. The next poem I read was Li-Young Li's "The Hammock". When reading, I thought about my relationship with my mother. She was in prison when I was very young, so the time I got to spend with her was very limited. However, we would have those moments where she would just hold me. I felt sad reading this, as we aren't very close and don't have moments like that anymore.
Through this semester, I have come to learn of the power of literature. I knew that books, poems, and other mediums of writing could be immersive, but I never really considered the impact they could have. When reading books like Lord of the Flies or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I learned how to analyze the books and find their messages. By doing this, I can reflect on my own life and change how I view the world. Analyzing books has also helped me identify certain biases the narrator/author may have, like how Othello was written. I could come to the conclusion that Shakespeare wasn't racist and did his best to make Othello a well fleshed-out character, when other writers at the time may have used very racist and terrible language. I also found it to be inspiring that these books were able to change society, like how Cuckoo's Nest created change in the American mental healthcare system.
The first poem I read was called "There is another sky" by Emily Dickinson. It was about the future and how there is always something more. I like it because it reminds you of hope. It reminds you that are always things that will be better. It is a call to move on and continue because you cannot stay in the past forever. The next poem I read was called "We real cool" by Gwedolyn Brooks. The poem talks about a group of kids who drop out of school and party all day. They live a fun, irresponsible life and they end up dying because of it. Because school is almost out, I just want to forget all of my responsibilities and have fun like them, but this is a reminder not to take it too far. It is okay to have fun in life, but you don’t want to let that search for fun be your top priority.
Through reading and writing regularly this semester, I have learned I was capable of a lot more than I thought. I have always had trouble drawing out what I am thinking in essays. This year, I have learned to express myself better. From the past, I would never have believed that I would ever be writing a fifteen page essay like the one I am writing now. Not only that but it is going flawlessly. I haven't had any problems including what I need to, so far. I have also grown as a writer in quality. I have always been decent with grammatical mistakes, but this year has taught me to use a lot more literary devices in my essays. Varying my sentence structure is another thing I have greatly improved this year. I've found in the past I liked to stick with relatively simple sentences because I never realized how much of an effect varied sentences could have.
The first poem I read is What the Drop of Water Had to Say by Yann Martel. I chose this poem because I enjoy reading his books, and I was intrigued by how he writes his poems. I am glad I read this poem first because I could personally connect to it very easily on numerous different levels. The first connection I made with this poem is how the sun is the brother and the moon is the sister. Unfortunately (I mean luckily) I have two sisters of my own. Knowing right away at the beginning of the poem helped me keep reading. As I dove deeper into the poem I also found the significance of water. I am glad I have read this poem because it reminded me to not take water for granted, without water there is no life on the planet earth.
The second poem I read was The Second Coming by William Butler Yeates. This poem caught my eye because it is over the topic of the second coming of Christ. I can connect to this because I've grown up in a church and have always been interested in when and how the second coming of Christ will come. It interesting to read because it explains the complete and utter chaos that will occur.
I am extremely glad I decided to enroll in college composition and literature. I was very hesitant last year when I signed up, but I have really learned a lot. Not only have I learned to just read and write better. I have become a better person. Before taking the composition class, I was not very confident in writing essays and I honestly can say that I thought I was really bad at them. I remember complaining about writing essays, but now thinking about I'm extremely glad I did because my writing has changed drastically and I am a lot more confident. Also, taking the literature class I have learned how to comprehend and analyze books. At first, I thought it was pointless to dig very deep into books, but I was very wrong. I am glad I have learned all the different ways of analyzing books so I can effectively get everything out of it. All in all, these two English classes not only have made me smarter but it has helped me mature as a man.
The first poem I read was "O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman. I choose this poem because I thought that it carried a good message. The message that I personally got from this poem is even though you may think that you are not good enough and question why you are here there is a reason. Life is going to be challenging and you are going to have to face hardships but that is a part of life. The answer was the most important lines in the poem; “That you are here—that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.” (Walt Whitman). I know I personally struggle with thinking that I am good enough and how I contribute to society. I was put on this world for a reason and I should be thankful that I am on this earth, to begin with. The second poem that I read "There is another sky" by Emily Dickinson. I was originally drawn to this poem since I know of how well known her poems are and how popular she is. I think that this poem is powerful because it shows that there is always something out there that you didn’t know about and/or have never seen or experienced. That in itself is amazing that we can continue to learn and experience more as we continue to grow.
During this semester I have learned more about myself. I have learned more about how I read and perceive what I read. When we would go into our forums I would have interpreted events in the book in different ways than many others. Hearing their perspectives helped me see the story from a different perspective. I love that one book with the same storyline can be perceived in multiple different ways depending on who reads it. I have also learned that I like to answer questions fully and explain why I believe something to the best of my ability. I realized this with the Lens and Pi Chapter Analysis essays. I am very excited to have my completed Manifesto since I choose option one. Many may think that it is the easiest option. Yes, it may be less research but it is more work. When you have to research something you have hard facts and evidence to present but when you have to come up with an original idea and write about it. I love to write and have two different book series in the process. But it takes a lot of time and effort. Depending on what you are writing about you have to do research, look and Yann Martel he takes a decade for research for each book.
The first poem I read was "The Addict" by Anne Sexton. Throughout this poem, Sexton talks about being addicted to pills and how it affects life as it has turned into a daily habit. I connect this to my personal life due to the opioid crisis that has been going on in the United States and many other countries. Thousands upon thousands of people in our very own country struggle every day with being addicted to opioids and many die, lose jobs, and burn relationships to the ground due to their struggle with the drugs; many people may say to just getting off of them but to these people, it is their life and the only way they see to get away from their problems while getting addicted to the out of body experience.
The second poem I read was "At the Globe with Shakespeare" by Patrick Hicks. Hicks goes into the present times and ask's questions about what Shakespeare would think of our everyday items such as movies, ballpoint pens, and airplanes. I related this to my life because we are living in this era. Mostly every person you come across in your life has seen a movie, flown on a plane, or owned a printer but it is wild to think that long ago these things did not exist.
Throughout this semester of reading novels and writing essays, I have learned that I am actually quite a good writer with acceptable reading skills. I have learned how to piece different sentences together to create a more smooth read for whoever is coming across my essays. While reading the essays in class with literary lenses I have developed a natural habit of reading everything with a lens on, I dissect more while reading trying to find the true meaning, however, I can find multiple meanings depending on the lens I decided to criticize with. I also acquired the thought that authors are very valuable human beings, they pass knowledge through stories without directly stating the knowledge they are passing, and yet they are still overlooked.
The first poem I read was "There Is Another Sky" by Emily Dickinson. The common theme found throughout the poem is that there is another place for you. I connect to this hidden message because of my life situation now. High school is coming to an end. This can be a sad thing because a big chapter in your life is closing, however, that is furthermore the reason to celebrate. In the poem, it says, "Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been." With great meaning, this section of the poem is explaining the new uncharted territory that has yet to be discovered. There is another place for me to go, and that place will be college, it will be changed, it will be new adventures. Excited for new beginnings, change is yet a scary thing. You create self-doubts and high expectations. It is not the fact that you are nervous about venturing into something new, it is more so imagining how life will play out. Did you pick the right college? Are you going to miss your family? What type of people are you going to run into? The second poem I read was "The Hammock" by Li-Young Lee. This poem mentions the growth of life. She mentions her son and her mother and the age difference between the two. In the poem, it says, "Between my mother's hopes, older than I am by coming before me, and my child's wishes, older than I am by outliving me." Growing up you learn many things, but it is teaching what you have learned what counts. As I am graduating I have had underclassmen ask for my advice on what classes to take. Knowing that they value my opinion, I give them my honest answer. Yet, there are times I look up to them as well. We all have things to learn from each other and the age difference does not matter.
Through reading and writing I have learned a lot about myself; especially this semester. I have truly been able to find my voice through writing essays. The essays have been given opportunities to express my own opinions. Not only did writing essays improve my sentence styles, but have also forced me to do research on certain topics. Out of all four years of being in high school, I have never had to go into the library to look things up. However, if I did not do that then I would have missed out on all the amazing stories that I have come across. Overall, I am glad I got to take this class to expand my vocabulary, create my own writing style, and get the opportunity to use local resources for research.
The first poem I read was "The Hammock" by Li-Young Lee. After some research, it seems like this poem is about seeing through the eyes of your relatives. I related to this because this is something I wonder about quite frequently. I am very to my family—especially to my mother. Despite this, I don't know what she is thinking. At times I find myself worrying for her, because sometimes you can clearly see how she is feeling on the outside. I wish I could help her and be there for her the way she has been for me for the past 17 years. I have a very great love for my mother, and she is like my best friend. I wish I knew what she was thinking so I could be there for her more. The second poem I read was "The Man-moth" by Elizabeth Bishop. The poem is about the fear of failure. The "man-moth" is climbing up a building that symbolizes his hopes and dreams, and doesn't make it to the top. So he falls to the ground ,but remains unhurt. He then rides a train back home , but facing backward. His fall symbolizes him failing to reach his dreams, and having to try again. I relate to this because I am very afraid of failure. It used to be worse, to the point where I didn't even try because I was too scared I would mess up. I push myself to try now, but that fear still lingers. Even though failure doesn't technically hurt you, as this poem suggests, it just puts you back at the starting point.
Through this class I have learned that literature can have many meanings. There isn't just one set interpretation. Your interpretation of it depends on your beliefs, background, and culture as well. Everyone will interpret a book in a different way. I also learned that I miss reading. I probably won't pick it up ever again (not like I used to) but it's still nice to pick up a book and read it every once in a while. I enjoyed this class a lot more than I thought I would. I was scared before taking it because I thought it would be a lot of work, but it was fun and enjoyable work so I didnt mind.
The first poem I took a look at was “At the Globe with Shakespeare” by Patrick Hicks. The poem is focusing on what Shakespeare would question and be amazed about if he was brought into the modern world. How he would give instructions to the people performing his plays or be amazed by the printing presses right on their desks. The ballpoint pens intriguing him and how he would scribble away. This poem took my attention because we see this daily as the older generation may not be as familiar with things that we use on a daily basis. IPhones, computers, things in our cars. Stuff that just isn’t familiar to people. The second poem I took a look at was “O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman. The poem speaks on the endless possibilities that life olds and how someone can choose whichever way they so desire. This poem connects to every high school student on some level, especially the outgoing senior classes. In my case, I had no idea of what I wanted to do early into my senior year. There were so many choices, and in the end, you have to pick. Life holds whatever path we choose.
Reading and Writing has never been my strong suit throughout high school and most of my life, so I had low expectations for myself entering this semester. But something clicked when I entered this class. I found myself getting pulled into books like I had never done before and frankly, I was surprised with myself. On the other hand, my writing has always been poor. I always found myself going on tangents that almost never made any sense to a reader and had no ground being there. This changed this semester. I found new ways to structure and give meaning to my writing. Enough to be able to write a 16 page and counting essay about something I had always been passionate about. Overall, this class, whether it being the reading of classics or the writing about a wide variety of topics, has helped me improve my writing and reading exponentially and I could not be more proud of how far I have come.
The first poem I read was "O Me! O Life! by Walt Whitman. I chose this because I was familiar with this name because of Breaking Bad. In the poem, Walt writes about the everyday life and what good he and others have in it. The poem discusses who and what is contributed to everyday life. Everyday brings a new challenge and this poem connects with that Idea. Also portrayed in the poem, the little things matter in life. We shouldn't get too focused on one big goal and miss out on the small things in life. I also read “There Is Another Sky”, by Emily Dickinson. This poem shares the idea that there is always the unknown. It emphasizes the idea of time and experiences. The older you get, the more you begin to see. Up to last year, college seemed like the unknown and now it is becoming closer and closer. One thing that I have rediscovered this semester is my interest of reading good books. I normally dislike reading but some of these novels have spiked my interest. I have also found out that I highly dislike poetry and Shakespeare. I have never really enjoyed Shakespeare but after reading Othello my total dislike for it has come back. However, I have learned that I do enjoy some reading as long as the material is good for me. Sophomore and Junior year I read 3 books out of all the books we were supposed to read. This year was the first year of English that I took seriously with my reading.
The first poem I read was “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. You always hear in school that drugs are bad for you and never abuse them. Even after my surgery, I was warned to be careful with my painkillers to avoid addiction. But this poem brings out the side no one tells you, that drugs become an emotional life support for you. It’s crazy how Sexton says is “the queen of this condition” and I really think it shows the reader just how deadly pills can be to both your mental and physical health. The second poem I read was “O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman. This poem made me think about the future. I’m going to college because that just seems like what everybody does after they graduate high school. But this poem made me think about how we all are really just chasing dreams. I wonder if we ever are going to catch them or just struggle trying to achieve them.
This semester has helped me build confidence in my writing. Before this year I was never a big fan of writing, still aren’t, because I thought I was really bad at it. But throughout this year I have gained so much confidence in my writing. I am not afraid anymore to write something with research in it because I now know how to properly cite it in my text as well as the works cited. The one thing I still need to fix is my procrastination, which has stayed the same all year. Hopefully, I will have it figured out before I go to college in a couple of months. Like always, I enjoyed the reading portion of this semester. Even though I didn’t have time or necessarily have to read the entire book, I always did because I simply like to read as well as read different styles of literature. I really didn’t know if I would like any of the books at the beginning of the year; I was wrong as Ken Kesey’s “Cuckoo’s nest” is one of my favorite books.
I first read the poem called "The hammock" by Li-Young Lee. This poem carries a story of two long periods of sleep with "little singing in between." I think back to when I was a child when I would lay my head on my mother's lap and wonder what was I thinking in those days. To think back to a simpler time. The next poem that I read was "O me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman. I think of my own foolishness that I have brought on to myself. Like in the opening lines “Of myself forever reproaching myself.” Why do we harm ourselves, not on purpose but because of foolishness. We have been and always will be our own selves' biggest downfall. There is nobody to blame but ourselves. Our own foolish, selfish actions will bring us down. “Oh me, Oh life” short but true. This is how life goes.
Throughout this semester I feel like writing has opened a side to me that I had not yet known of myself. I have always hated writing essays but knew they are just a part of school that they are just another part of the workload. As I developed different ways of writing it has brought forth different ways of thinking. Learning from Yann martel himself I can never write something once without taking out multiple sentences. I find myself writing whole paragraphs that I write, reread, and instantly delete because I thought of something better. I also found myself planning ahead a lot more with my writing where I write parts before my idea has reached that point. In some ways, it probably hurts me because my thoughts take me elsewhere but with more practice, I figure I will find better ways of incorporating multiple aspects into my writing.
The first poem I found that I connected with was Walt Whitman “O Me! O Life!. The beginning part of the poem is a question almost and it’s someone picking at themselves and saying they’re empty. I relate to this especially the picking at myself or “Of myself forever reproaching myself” It always seems difficult to find parts of myself that I like when it always seems easier to find the parts that I don’t like. The last part of the poem is an answer to the first bit. That you are here and that you will contribute your own verse to the poem or to life. The second poem I related to was “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. This poem was about not sitting still and letting things happen but rage against the things that are unfair. I liked this one because of where we are in the school year. Instead of giving into just wanting to be done you have to push towards the end.
Throughout this semester I have mainly learned more about literary theory and how to be more critical of books and scenes and try to figure out if there is a deeper meaning. I learned that this may have been something that I have been doing for a while as well. Being an avid reader ingrained this into but learning how to go deeper into it opened my eyes a little more. I also learned a bit more about writing, and a lot less about time management then I would like. A rather not helpful thing I learned this entire year is that I can read through entire classes and not fail like I was told as a youngling in elementary school. So that’s a fun cheers to all the teachers who took my books and told me to pay attention.
The first poem I chose to read was “O me! O Life!” By Walt Whitman. This poem is written about a question everybody has asked or will ask at least once in their life, “What is the meaning of life?” His answer to his own question is similar to the way I want to/ do look at life. Every single person lives their life in this world to give something. He calls it, “contributing a verse.” It is saying that everyone has something for the world and if they were not there to give it everyone would miss out because then the “powerful play” we live in will be down a verse. The second poem I read was “Danse Russe” by Will Williams. This poem is based around the fact that when no one is looking Will likes to do whatever he wants. I try to treat my life like this, like no one is looking because it doesn’t really matter what they say or think because it is my life.
All of the reading and writing I have done this semester shown a lot about me. One of the most obvious things I have found out about myself is that I am not a strong reader. When I read books I can not analyze them as I read through. I always try to look past the initial intent or surface understanding of the book but that will almost always lead me into spending 5 minutes of trying to figure out second meaning for passages and paragraphs when I could be twice as far into the chapter. I have improved a lot after realizing this and I am glad that I had the opportunity to find that and I hope that I can continue to get better in the future.
First, I chose to read "O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman. I chose this poem because it asks the question of what is the purpose of living. Whitman writes about how everybody is so engrossed in chasing futile dreams that they never step back to realize how foolish the dream might be. I think I can connect to this because it is easy to see people that spend their entire lives chasing extraordinary dreams. It's good to have dreams, but sometimes people get too caught up in them and they breeze through their life without stopping and just simply living. The other poem I chose was "Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. I chose this poem because it simply about struggling to avoid death, but can be translated into always doing your best and never giving up. I can connect to this because I feel that those two themes are important when going through living life. Through reading and writing, I have learned quite a bit about myself this semester. I do not think that I have ever been able to get so lost in books that I am reading for school. And it is not just the plot and the story, I have found myself getting lost in the structure of the books and getting lost in my own thoughts while thinking and interpreting about the books. Aside from reading, I have noticed some stuff about my writing also. I used to hate writing essays, and though I do not necessarily love going so now, I find the work to run along a lot smoother and easier which, in turn, makes them more enjoyable. I think that part of the reason my essays are coming along easier is due to the fact that I feel that I am able to pull more out of a text than before.
The two poems I can relate to are not the happiest poems. The first one is “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. This is a poem about how she was addicted to drugs and was taking up to eight pills at a time. I have never been addicted to drugs myself but I do know an individual who took multiple painkillers at once. This person was not mentally stable and I was extremely worried about them. They didn’t seem to care because soon, taking multiple pills at once became a daily thing. The second poem is “Oh Me! Oh Life!” by Walt Whitman. I liked the end of this poem because it brings a happy ending to sad words. The entire beginning and middle of the poem are about him questioning himself and life worth. In the end, he reassures himself by saying “That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.” I can relate to this because there was a; point in my life where I was really doubting my self-worth. I did grow out of that phase thankfully and I now know I am here for a reason and that I am meant to be in this world.
Through reading and writing this semester, I have learned that I need to be more grateful for what I have. After reading Life of Pi, I learned to be grateful for my family and for my belongings. This novel also reminded me that I need to thank God more often. When Pi was questioning his decisions and how important his life was, he prayed to his gods and he lived. I also learned that with motivation and will, I can do anything I put my mind to. When reading Lord of the Files, I learned to be grateful for my friends. I need to be grateful for the good relationships I have and I need to stray away from the toxic relationships that I get into. Lastly, after reading and analyzing Othello, I have learned to not be an overprotective lover and to be thankful that my boyfriend is not of the jealous type.
The first poem I read was “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop. I was inclined to read this poem because the title confused me. Looking at it Man-Moth is a Newspaper misprint for “mammoth” This poem plus my tired brain made it really hard for me to understand. Anyways it starts off with this Man observing the moon and the many properties. Many nights I look into the sky and I see do the same. My family always had an ongoing debate on what the moon is, my dad sees a face, while my mom sees a little girl holding a lunchbox. Back in the poem it seems like he thinks that the moon is a hole in the sky, he tries to investigate his theory but with no success, after this, it seems that he is almost afraid of the moon afterward. The second poem I read was “This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin. I feel like some of my friends would enjoy this poem because they would agree with the major points of this poem. Every generation can tell you stories about how they were raised and how they are trying to raise you to not become like them. This poem sums up that.
Through reading and writing, I have learned a few things. I still appreciate reading but I seem to never make time for it. I also remembered how important it is to select the books that you read. Also, it is okay for you to not enjoy every book you pick up, and that you can put it down to never return to it if that is what you truly desire. Through the writing that I have done this semester, I learned that I need extreme focus to write comfortably. I still struggle with writing even if it is only a paragraph or two. Briefly skimming others' responses or essays I get intimidated. They are using vocabulary that I used to get made fun of for using. Overall I still benefitted from taking this class and learning about literary lenses as well as reading the books at a deeper level.
The first poem that I read was "There is another sky" by Emily Dickenson. This was a very comforting poem for me because it gives the sense that everything will be okay. This really applies to me right now considering I'm stressed about college, moving out, work, and finishing high school. Dickenson emphasizes that things will get better "though it be darkness there".
The second poem that I read was "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. This poem is about previous students that dropped out of school and started going out on the town instead. Brooks alludes to them dying insinuating that education is so important that without it, you could die. This poem speaks to me because getting to the end of senior year is a struggle and I think about dropping out at any minor inconvenience. She warns of what could happen if I choose to do so.
This semester I learned many things about myself. Particularly, I learned that I never really pushed myself with my writing enough and I had a lot of untapped potential that came out in my essays. I also learned how to analyze more deeply and, therefore, I found myself having many different ideas that I was eager to discuss with my classmates. Whether it was Life of Pi or One Flew over the Kuckoo's Nest, I saw that using different lenses and perspectives really opened my eyes. I also learned that I am fully capable of doing well in college english classes. I have always been worried about college english because it is such a significant step up from high school english. These classes have taught me that they are a lot of hard work but they are completely worth it. These classes have made me very eager to attend college to take more english classes.
Gwendolyn Brook's poem, "we real cool", was the first piece I read. I connected to it personally because it went about the stages of life in a sense. It was more so aimed at a carefree crowd of people. Although this is not my persona, I connected to it because it made me wonder how people choose not to care about things. How in high school, students choose to think they are cool by skipping school, staying out late, "striking straight"(picking on people?), living lives of sin, and drinking. I think Gwendolyn was possibly trying to hone in the "YOLO" mentality of young people, how it doesn't matter how they act people they're just going to die at some point anyway. As an almost high school alum, I have seen this side of high schoolers, and other young adults. This is why it connects to me.
Similar to "We real cool", "a connotation of infinity" written by Cummings, gives a take on life. However, this poem focuses more on the perception of existence and its overwhelming splendor. This connects to me because of what I am writing about in my manifesto. My manifesto pertains to the overwhelming meaning of life and love(the essence of art), and I believe that in order to come to a conclusion on such things, you have to dive into the "poised radiance of perpetualness". It also talks about how a person should carry themselves in life and how their own actions can affect them for the best or for the worst.
This semester I have learned a lot about myself through reading and writing. After reading some very well-written works of literature, I realized how much you can learn about yourself and others. Reading helped me come to some conclusions in my life that have really helped me grow. Reading these books has taught me to self-reflect so that I can better myself, allowing others to grow as well. The pieces of literature that we studied this year have forced me to ask myself the hard questions, making myself truly think——opening my mind to so many different avenues. Writing has done the same for me. Although I still struggle starting essays and stringing my thoughts together, it has taught me to be patient, creative, and open=minded. I found that you have to go with your creative thoughts and let the writing speak for itself. You cannot force a good paper to be written so you have to find ways to make it as unique and interesting to you as you can. The most important thing I have learned about writing is that it is okay to be wrong, but you have to support your ideas with well-written proof/ideas pertaining to the topic you are writing about. Overall, I know for a definite fact that I have increased my ability to read between the lines(through lenses), and write quality pieces of work.
I’m gonna be relating to the poem “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton. This poem is about the hope and trust lost in mankind after the holocaust. When I was around 10 years old, I was swimming with my brother. My brother happens to be deaf which will come into play in a little bit. We were at the Westward Ho country club. My brother and I were messing around in the pool. I dunked my brother under the water for a couple of seconds. In retaliation, my younger brother held my head under the water for a minute or even two. I had lost track of time, I thought that I was gonna die at that moment. My mom was yelling at my brother but he couldn’t hear me because he was deaf. He eventually let me up; However, after this incident, I wasn’t able to swim with my brother for a while and I can’t mess around in the pool anymore with friends because of this fear and lost trust.
The second poem I read was “The addict” by Anne Sexton. This poem is about an addiction to pills that is detrimental to the person’s health. The addiction doesn’t lead to any fulfillment. I can relate to this poem through video games. I used to choose video games over responsibility, playing anywhere from 3-8 hours a day. Presently, I play video games, but I do it in a balanced amount. I may play video games anywhere from 1-3 days a week for about 2 hours. I realized video games don’t give me a sense of fulfillment.
This semester has been an awesome learning curve. I have learned that reading and analyzing literature transfer over to my writing in a lot of ways. I am a better writer because of reading and looking through different lenses and perspectives. I have learned that I am more capable of success than I believe. Writing is way easier this semester because of all the essays we had written last semester. I feel better prepared for college, I have an enthusiastic outlook for my next four years and I think that this semester has helped to realize that my knowledge from this class can transfer over to many different subjects in terms of perspective. A big thing I have learned about myself is my ability to think of many ideas. I think that my creativity levels spiked this year and my ability to connect ideas to tell a story or write an essay.
The first poem I read was "There is another sky" by Emily Dickinson. What I took away as the overall message from this poem was that there will always be something out there that you have yet to see or experience, and that there are always things you did not previously know about. This just describes how we will continue to learn and experience more and more as we grow and go through life. I can relate to this as I am constantly learning in and outside of school, and I am learning to enjoy the time I have doing so. The second poem I read was "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. I personally chose this poem because of its appearance in the Interstellar soundtrack. This poem talks about never giving up, that even during the toughest times, you should fight at every bend.
I have learned a lot about myself through reading and writing this semester. Through reading, I have learned that I actually love hearing about all the different ways to analyze a piece of literature. I have found that I enjoy reading books a lot more now because of the fact that there is always more to a book than just the words on the page, there are different meanings and ideas to explore. My personal library of book genres has expanded as well, as I will be looking into other works related to the books we read in class. I have also continued to improve my writing during this semester, not only fundamentally, but I have realized I can write a lot more than I used to, especially when given a good prompt. I will be using what I have learned this semester in the future, and I hope that I will continue to learn and get better in the future.
I analyzed the poem: "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. In this poem, Thomas is describing passing on this world into death, or what he calls the "Good Night." He repeats the phrase, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light," when describing types of people dying. One reason I was attracted to analyzing this poem was the interstellar picture on the right and the connections I noticed between the poem and the film. Cooper, the father, has to go on a mission into space in order to potentially save the human race, but he also has to leave his daughter, Murph, behind on Earth. This poem describes resisting death and staying alive for the things that matter, which is exactly what Cooper did in the movie. He resisted his death in the black hole to get back to Murph, even though things were different from before.
The next poem I analyzed was "After Auschwitz" by Anne Sexton. This poem centers around a person who witnessed the horrors of the holocaust and experiences extreme anger towards the Nazis. She writes "I say aloud.../Let man never again raise his eyes," referring to the entire race, but specifically the actions of the Nazis. According to Sexton, mankind is evil and doesn't deserve to live because of the evil acts we commit. Although she says this aloud to death, death does nothing to stop mankind. She does not want God to hear though, since God is supposed to be forgiving and not be vengeful.
I think that this class has been a useful tool for learning more about myself. The books we have read seemed easier to connect with compared with the other novels we were required to read throughout high school. One thing I have noticed is the difference between my brother and my tastes in books. We both liked Lord of the Flies but while I appreciated One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he preferred Life of Pi. This leads me to believe that he prefers novels with more down to Earth language but more interpretation, and I prefer more ambiguous language but with more defined interpretation. I just found this interesting because we obviously had similar educations and upbringings but still appreciate different aspects of literature. This notion was backed up by the fact that I really liked Fahrenheit 451 and he thought it was so boring he couldn't finish it.
The First poem that I read was “O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman. In this poem he talks about all the meaningful things in life, and how life needs to be lived how you want it to be lived. You should not have to listen to others about how to live your life but you should do what you want, and live and grow to be all the things you want to be and not what others have said. To not let society get you to be someone you know that you are not. This personally impacts me because I feel like people try and tell me what I should and should not do all the time, but I need to decide what is best for me and not what is best for the others around me. The second poem I read is “There is another sky” by Emily Dickinson. This poem emphasizes the good things in the world even with the darkness. Talks about how the unknown is not something that needs to be feared but is something that needs to be embraced to help increase your own understanding. Like many of my classmates have likely said, college is right around the corner and it is scary and enticing, and nerve-wracking and will be the time of our lives. This unknown is something we have yet to experience but have heard the stories. And it is something that is unknown now but by embracing reality it will help us learn more and help to grow our knowledge.
This semester I have learned that I have the ability to be a good writer if I want to. This class has helped me to study literature and different authors and help me personally in my own writing. This allows me to improve my writing and write more confidently. This semester has also made me think more than I thought I would in a Literature class. The novels that we read were outstanding and helped me to think about them from so many different angles and it really helped me to understand and learn more. Especially the forums, they helped me learn even more than I would have on my own and I am grateful that, that opportunity was presented to me. I have also learned that relationships are going to play what may be the most important role in my life. Yeah, I have always had good friends, but all the people who have been with me through this last semester will hopefully end up playing larger roles in my life after high school. This just blows my mind because all my friends are going to different colleges than I am so I am really trying to cherish every moment with them and trying to build those relationships so that they can last even when we do not see each other every single day.
I began by reading the poem "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. Gwendolyn speaks about kids who are trouble makers. They are the naughty group of kids; the stereotypical teens that your parents don't want you hanging out with. This group of teens does all the usual bad things no parent wants, stay out late, drink, and eventually drop out of school. I relate to this not directly, but because I know many kids in school who are trouble makers and do things along these lines that parents don't like. I also read a poem titled "There Is Another Sky" by Emily Dickinson. In this poem, Emily creates a world in which has been destroyed and rebuilt over time. This new world is a utopia. I relate to this because it reminds me of the movie "Walle" which I adored as a kid. In "Walle", Earth has basically turned into a garbage dump and the human species leaves Earth. They then turn their spaceship they're now living on into a utopia, or so what they think one is.
Through reading and writing, I have learned a lot about myself this semester. I have grown so much in my abilities to write and comprehend novels and even movies. I never use to look too deeply into things I read or watched and just picked up on the basic reasoning of it all. Now I am able to pick out certain hidden messages and better comprehend the novel or movie I am reading or watching. It is especially cool to be able to point things out to friends and family that they probably would've never noticed. It is a lot easier to pick up the parallels between two things I'm reading as well. My writing abilities have grown a lot. I am now able to write about things I never thought I could and am able to write multiple pages on a certain topic. My writing has also become a lot more sophisticated.
The poem that I first read was "The Addict" by Anne Sexton. This really got me to think about how bad addiction is and how it can play a role in a person's life. Sexton in the poem talks about how these drugs can destroy a person. People begin to love these drugs more than they love themselves. The drugs are constantly beating these people up, yet they still use them. Sexton relates drug addiction to being in a marriage and also a war that takes place within the addict. This helps give me some empathy towards people who are addicts and at the same time reminds me why I will never get into drugs. The second poem that I read was "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. This poem is about people who are doing "cool" things and rebelling. They do things like staying up late, drinking booze, and using inappropriate language. But in the end, they end up dying soon. Which makes me believe that all the things they did ended up killing them sooner than they needed to die. And I want to live my life to the fullest so I do not believe I need to act "cool" all the time.
This semester I have learned a lot about myself while reading and writing. Usually, when I get a book assigned for me to read in school I end up dreading the whole process of reading, finding hidden meaning that doesn't really matter too much and writing about the story. Through this class, I have found how to read a book and analyze it to find a better understanding of what is happening and what the author is trying to tell the reader. I have enjoyed this process of analyzing books and then being able to apply it to different theories that writers use. And as a writer would go on during school I did not dread it because I never had to write more than about two pages before this class. But going into this class knowing that I would start to write more than that was a little scary. But through the process, I have actually enjoyed writing about the topics given. Especially because I am allowed to write about things I am passionate about. Like in the first semester I did a Juxtapose with the TV show Survivor which I later found out that Mr. C "hated". But overall I am very glad that I took this class because it has better prepared me for college and life in general.
The first poem I read was "There Is Another Sky" by Emily Dickinson. The main idea of the poem is that everything changes whether we like it or not. Things of old get torn down and get built over with newer things. But in the poem, the reader reads about her "garden," where things never change because they are perfect. I can understand why people would want things to stay the way they are. As humans, we like to be comfortable, and change puts stress on one's life. Change can lead to better things, though. When I leave high school and go on to college, things will change, and this will put stress on my life, but it will be a good change, and better things will come of it in the end than if I were to keep things the exact same forever. The second poem that I read was "A Narrow Fellow In the Grass" by Emily Dickinson. This poem is about the idea of being afraid and scared of things we wish we could do. I can relate to this story because there are things that, before I had actually done them, were afraid of even trying them out in the first place.
I learned a lot about myself over the course of the year. At the beginning of the, I did not have the confidence to write like I do now. I always dreaded doing essays before this year because I didn't have the confidence to do well. I have also learned how to make my essays more interesting rather than bland because of the word choice I had used before. I also learned that I should give every book I come across a read. Before this year, I would only read a few different genres, and that wouldn't help me expand my reading because every book I was reading was a story that was similar to everything else that I had read before. I now know that there are other genres that I would have just looked at and said that they would not interest me because I had never expanded my reading before.
One poem that I connected to was Li-Young Lee’s “The Hammock”. I am currently in a weird transitional phase between high school and living under my parents roof and rules, and moving on to college where I am mostly on my own. I am stuck between the songs of my mother and the songs of the family I am yet to have. And there are thoughts of people I wish to know but will never get the opportunity to. “Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas was also easy to connect to autobiographically because it tells us to make the most of the time we have. My allotted time for experiences is slowly dwindling. There is only about a week left of high school followed by just a few years of college. After that, it is just life. I will work every day, my friend circle will greatly diminish and will be more constricted, not quite as open to the rest of my life and activities.
I have learned this semester that I am more resilient than I had first thought. Writing essay after essay is hard and it is quite difficult to make myself finish this Manifesto. In the daunting face of ten pages, I have been able to keep pushing myself to succeed. Reading this semester has also allowed me to view the world through many different lenses and to be able to look within myself and see what can be changed with what I read. Reading has made me question humanity, to see goodness in people I thought were incapable of being good. It helped me question motives—why is this person behaving in a certain way? Is there something in their past that would cause this? I am now less quick to judge others and am greatly remorseful when I do judge. I have friends now that I did not have before because I have found new ways to connect with the people around me.
I first read Emily Dickinson’s “A narrow fellow in the grass”. It reminded me of the summers I spent west-river with family. The town of Gregory, where my family is from, is near the Missouri River. We would spend all summer down at the river. There were always rattlesnakes sunning themselves on the rocks, adding a layer of anxiety and caution to the merriment. Dickinson’s poem refers to a “narrow fellow” being in the grass. By this, she means a snake. Whether taken literally or figuratively, the snake represents fear. I connected to the poem in a more literal sense as I dealt with the real dangers of snakes throughout my childhood. The second poem I read was “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop which is a play on the misspelling of “mammoth”. I connected mostly to the poem’s humorous nature. I liked the idea of Bishop taking a newspaper’s small error and turning it into an odd but intriguing story of a man-moth creature.
This semester, through both reading and writing, I have learned I am able to consciously analyze the underlying meanings of literary works. By utilizing literary theory as well as a variety of different literary lenses, I have learned to take these unassuming, underlying meanings and insinuations and find their significance. Through writing, I have learned I am able to give these hidden details a life of their own, regardless of the author’s intentions (or lack thereof) for them. Second semester has also led me to realize I am often able to get far more information through what is not written than through what is. Of myself, I have learned I enjoy works a great deal more when I actively apply literary theory and lenses to them. The use of these tools drawing out more information adds a new level of intrigue to writings I have been unable to find before.
I read The Addict by Anne Sexton, and it was a pretty deep poem about addiction. I have a couple thoughts on the poem itself and the whole aspect of addiction for people. Her poem almost was reasoning with her addiction and she was trying to justify it but at the same time she knew what she was doing was hurting her. She says that her addiction to pills makes her not a bother to others but she also calls the pills bombs that figuratively and literally can kill her. The thing with addiction is that it can be anything. People can be addicted to pills, hard-core drugs, and even food. Addiction can affect anyone and it can be anything and many people struggle with their own kind of addictions. The hard part is that people are addicted to their own things because they enjoy them but enjoying them too many causes major problems.
Throughout this semester I have learned quite a bit about myself. I found that I like reading quite a lot. I haven't read a book since middle school on my own and reading 5 books in one semester was definitely a change of pace. I did enjoy reading all of those books and really focusing on what was going on and why. I really liked being able to talk about what we read during forums like it was a book club and see what others thought as well.
I read most of the poems in the folder, but I found two, both about family, that I connected to the most. The first being “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. This poem starts off by reminding me of the innocence of a child. Almost all kids have a connection to a parent that is unexplainable, always trusting, and loving. When I was younger I had this type of relationship with my mother. I trusted everything she did and said. I feel very connected to this poem. It reminds me of family, of course, but also just society in general. Since the man in the story had a very loving mother that protected his innocence he wanted to create the same environment for his own child, but he doesn’t know if he is doing it the same. It reminded me that everyone goes through life in different ways. No one has it the same and none of us know what we are doing. This poem reminds me to not overthink like the man does and roll with it. There are too many unknowns for you to worry about and maybe that’s a good thing. The second story about family was “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin. A completely different perspective on family. You can tell that he did not have the same childhood as Li-Young Lee just by the first few lines. He talks about how parents mess you up even if they aren’t trying to. Just like in the first poem, this one reminded me of my mother. We are very similar, but hopefully different in some ways. I see the flaws with her mother within my own and the same for me. I feel like parents put their wants and needs onto their children sometimes. That is what the poem seems to be talking about from my perspective and I can connect with that. My pressures are from volleyball and living up to my mother’s expectations. Sports are a really important part of her life and I feel that it was forced upon me. Luckily I found to enjoy volleyball, unlike basketball and softball. Based on this, if I have children, I don’t want to force my children into sports. I honestly would rather have them be into the arts. This poem, by Philip Larkin, scares me into thinking that if I do have kids, no matter what, I will somehow ruin them. Hopefully, that is not the case.
After taking Composition and Literature I have learned so much. Before comp. I used to dread writing even a two-page essay and now I can write a ten-page manifesto in no time. It has given me lots of practice to better my writing and vocabulary for college. Writing in this class has made me more confident in myself and the words that I put down on the page. Introduction to Literature has made me use my knowledge from the first semester and apply it to this one. Not only do I have to use my writing skills for the essays, but I also get to work on my speaking skills as well. The Friday forums gave me a chance to speak about what I believe the story is about and really stand my ground on the opinions I have. This class also gave me the mindset to dig deeper than the surface and really try to understand what the authors are trying to get at with their stories. Last year I would not have seen all the foreshadowing and the allusions in a book about a monkey and donkey, but luckily I do now and hopefully, I continue to do so.
I read "Do Not go Gentle into that goodnight" and it is a very powerful poem about fighting until the last seconds. The author discusses the prospect of never giving up and never go out without putting up a fight. Life throws challenges at all of us, even to those of us who feel invincible. While It is easy to throw in the towel and give up, there is no reason to throw away a fragile life. Life is difficult, there is no question about it. But through Thomas's poem, he makes it clear that although life throws all of its obstacles at us, life is worth living. I connected with this poem because I have struggled with my mental health for a long time. While at times it could be easy to disappear from the rest of the world, I have so much in my life where am required, and needed.
Throughout lit, I have realized so much. I have learned that literature goes so much deeper than words on page. I have learned that I am a larger Marxist than I am a feminist, and that reading is still fun, all these years later. I love reading and writing, in fact I often find myself considering it as a career. I loved the books we read, especially Othello and One Flew Over the Cuckoos, because the plots are entrenched with so much detail, characters, and drama. The stories are unique in themselves because of their time periods and the societies that they reflect around them. I had SUCH a fun time in literature this semester. I enjoyed discussing in forums about my thoughts about the book rather than testing because comprehension means nothing without discussion. The books we read were so important to discuss and learn from especially as we go into the real world.
The two poems that I read were "After Auschwitz" and "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." I chose these poems because they both seemed fitting for the topics we studied in Beatrice and Virgil. After Auschwitz is a crushingly sad social commentary on the atrocities committed throughout concentration camps. The author is bitter at humanity and the things she has seen. She says that she hopes that "man" never does a bunch of menial tasks again but they represent a larger picture. "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is also another take on the holocaust and the terrible events that happened during it. It is telling the Jewish people to fight against what is happening even if it means the death of them because in the end most will end up dead and they may as well go down with a fight.
This year in lit has been eye-opening. I have realized that many stories have a deeper meaning. That sounds stereotypical but I really found that out in the story "Hills like white elephants" This story seemed very innocent and didn't seem to make much sense at all. However when looked at more deeply one sees that there is a lot more going on. Using this in real life has its applications and I've begun to realize many things in life have a deeper meaning when looked at further
I originally published this on April 30th but for some reason it never sent, I apologize for the delay.
I read Sylvia Plath's daddy and Larkin's This Be The Verse. The first poem was a captivating piece by Plath that likely related to her own late father. She refers to him as someone she misses but at the same time calls him out for being manipulative and powerful. She compares this to the nazis and the power they had over their citizens. Eventually she surmises that maybe it isn't such a bad thing that he's gone. I relate this to my job and High School since these are two things I'll have to give up when I go to college. I had good times with both and I'll miss them, but they did have a lot of power over me and took up a lot of my free time. I realize that it won't really be a bad thing when they're gone and I'll be better as a person upon finding my new paths in life. The second poem by Larkin is a pessimistic poem about how humanity is messed up and we'll always keep passing our bad traits to the next generation. I'll admit that I am a bit of a pessimist too so I can relate to Larkin's standpoint, however, I don't agree with the assumption that we should just stop having kids since humanity will always be greatly flawed, but do think it is an interesting opinion by Larkin.
Through this semester, I reminded myself how much I enjoyed reading and writing. It may have just been a combination of better essay prompts and novels, but I really enjoyed the classwork I engaged in during these past months. Life Of Pi reminded me how much I liked the first-person narrative in novels and how it really brings you into the life of the character. It kinda made me want to write something from the first person view since it's a good way of getting the reader to relate to your character while also writing a self insert pseudo-autobiographical character. Speaking of which, I enjoyed writing the essays this semester that asked for your thoughts on a novel/literary lens used. It really made me think about my thoughts on a novel and use them to construct a narrative. I also learned about how I like writing about music, especially after choosing the prompt to expand a previous essay by ten pages. I'll be doing an expansion on my "Modern Music is better than Old Music" argumentative essay.
Post a Comment