Final Portfolio: Interpretation of Literature

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Cover

2. Table of Contents

3-4. Reflective Essay

5-10. Essay One

11-16. Essay Two

17-18. Reading Response One

19-20. Reading Response Two

21-22. Reading Response Three

23-24. Reading Response Four

25-26. Reading Response Five

REFLECTIVE ESSAY

Over the course of the spring semester of 2014, I’ve taken Interpretation of Literature with which I’ve learned a lot. During the course, we’ve touched on many different topics, from poetry, to short stories, to novels. And while I personally am not a fan of poetry, short stories, or novels, I find the ones we’ve read worth reading. The stories intertwined with the words on the pages made me want to continue reading past what were instructed to do so, and on some occasions, I did. I was rarely bored of what we were reading and was rather excited to be able to discuss what we had read. Because of this, I had learned a few things that I enjoyed about reading and about writing in general, the most important being “close reading”. Interpretation of Literature has taught me that close reading is important because it lets me understand what evokes emotion, how it helps with “naturalizing” a character, and how writers are influenced by each other.

Emotion was one of the points I mention because we spent weeks on its importance during the poetry section of the semester. We had read a poem from Sylvia Plath called “Daddy”. It was two-paged poem consisting of Plath referring to her father as dominate/”evil” figures, such as Hitler, a Teacher, and a vampire. I thought that this poem stuck out the most to me because it was a more violent poem. Most often I’ve had to read love poems such as Shakespeare or poems about nothing in particular. I find these poems boring. Sylvia ...

... middle of paper ...

...lks about how it feels to go through life when someone is overwhelmed by pain. This can be seen through what she describes walking as: “The Feet, mechanical, go round—//Of Ground, or Air, or Ought—//A Wooden way//Regardless grown” (Pg. 949). In the literal sense, the speaker is talking about how, if a person were in pain, walking feels awkward and unnatural, like a person’s legs are made of wood and controlled by mechanical functions. However, I believe the second stanza is telling the reader how when a person is in pain or depressed, they try to act normal; unfortunately, the person who is pain believes they are walking abnormally and appear strange to s to inventions, facts, and whatever else he finds interesting. Once again, his neuroticism causes him to constantly rethink what he is doing and what is happening around him. He begins thinking about his father and