When I was much younger, There was a lot that I did not understand. But as a child that is to be expected. At this point in life, Your mind is essentially a blank canvas waiting to be splashed with a multitude of colors, these colors representing this variety of all this undiscovered knowledge which had been foreign to me. Growing up, reading was not associated with anything pleasurable. It was thought of more as a chore to me, it is what’s needed to gain this understanding and I thought that if I did this, it would eventually make me and intellectual. So I had not really thought of it in any other way. I guess to could say in that aspect that is where the protagonist in “ Hunger of Memory” and I are similar. He read for conceptual completion but not for a general understanding. I did not …show more content…
This is where the protagonist in “ Hunger of Memory” Gradually, it became other things, online forums, blogs. newspaper articles, even fan fiction. My love for reading really grew over the years and that is something I’ve learned to become very proud of. I now have a better understanding and a bigger grip on reality. Since it has the ability to completely alter my view on almost everything. I have nothing but respect for the art of literature. I have gone on to tackle many different bigger, longer and harder texts. I have expanded my overall knowledge in terms of comprehension, literacy and vocabulary and many other aspects that have helped me further my education. Although the my experience has not been completely positive, nothing is without difficulty. I had to learn how to mind if I truly wanted to understand literature. My experience has made me realize the importance and my own frustration, so I am actually very thankful that I had to struggle with it in the beginning. I have such a respect of literature, and just reading in
We as humans tend to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. We look for knowledge about everybody and everything that surrounds us from our day-to-day life. Sadly though, we must accept that in the grand scheme of life we (as a society) tend to put pleasure above our quest for knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge tends to take time and energy, two things we call invaluable, and it also shows us things that might depress us. Contrastingly, ignorance takes no time and energy. Also, (as the common saying goes) ignorance is bliss. It keeps ugly truths away from us. But that is no reason to forsake knowledge for ignorance. In the early 1900’s, two books were published that would eventually be referred to the pinnacle of classical literature. The Great Gatsby and Fahrenheit 451 both stand out as stunning literary works. But their success is not the only thing they share. Though they are very dissimilar in setting as well as genre, the two books have the same theme. The theme is the universal message the book is trying to inform the readers about. Fitzgerald and Bradbury both convey the theme of the pursuit of knowledge versus the pleasure of ignorance in The Great Gatsby and Fahrenheit 451.
Richard Rodriguez is a character of intense passion, yet states his points in an intellectual manner. I cannot help but take him seriously because this book is obviously not only written from the heart, but very well written. Hunger of Memory is not like any book I've ever read. It is a book that introduces new issues that I personally, have never thought of before. The most notable topics that Rodriguez tends to elaborate on are his feelings on bilingualists (bilingual educators), language and words, and intimacy.
He repeats this several times to emphasize the strength of his desire . He states, “Now it surged up again and I hungered for books, new ways of looking and seeing. It was not a matter of believing or disbelieving what I read, but of a feeling something new, of being affected by something that made the look of the world different.” (38). Wright is not satisfied after reading one book. He becomes attached to each new book he reads because it sheds a new outlook on life for him. Reading enlightens him to see the world in a different angle and it helps him to relate to others. He later claims, “But a vague hunger would come over me for books, books that opened up new avenues of feeling and seeing, and again I would forge another note to the white librarian” (39). Wright’s “hunger” becomes so repetitive, that he can emphasize how reading has deeply impacted his life. At the same time, this continuous hunger feeds into his motivation to keep forging notes and taking risky trips to the library. Repetition in Wright 's narrative helps to explain how his desires for reading does not stop after reading one book. He never is content, yet always wants
Carr is worried. He confesses that he now has difficulty with the simple task of sitting down and reading a book. Absorbing the text is now belaboring, and he finds that his mind drifts off into other realms. Moreover, this phenomenon is not only limited to himself. Bruce Friedman, a pathologist at the University of Michigan Medical School, admits that he “can’t read War and Peace anymore…even a blog post of three or four paragraphs is too much,” (Carr). In addition, Scott Karp, a devoted blogger on online media and literature major, relates that he was an avid reader in college. Sadly, he observes the same trend in his focus as Carr and Friedman. Karp speculates that the loss of focus isn’t so much a change in the way he reads, but in the way he thinks (Carr).
My earliest memories can be found at the hands of paperback novels. Books were my escape from the world around me. The thrill of being able to leave behind the world and it’s baggage and enter another that books provided captivated me, and left an impact on me. The emotion I experienced solely from taking a small step into another person’s story was unlike any I had felt before. I desperately wanted others to feel what I had felt, and love whatever I had become entranced by with the same passion as I did.
Richard is thirsty for new knowledge, wanting to expand his brain. Growing up as black during the 1920s gives Richard limited opportunities to get a strong, secure education, so he is always looking for new ways to obtain knowledge. Richard’s local library prohibited blacks to check out books, so Richard asked a white coworker to borrow his library card. Richard forges a note saying that Richard is just picking up books for his coworker to read. He would become entranced with the books he read, but thought no other black person read like him, this made him stop reading for awhile. After a couple of days past with him not reading, “A vague hunger would come over me for books.” (Wright 357) Richard is always hungry for books, like an addiction, if he stops reading for a couple of days he will just end up wanting to read more. Richard is hungry for a new life as well. Richard read a paper that described a modern world. He yearned to live in that world that was almost alien to him, “I hungered for a different life.” (Wright 187) Richard is dissatisfied with his own life he longs for one he just read on a paper. He states that the modern world is, “merely stories” but his desire to get away from his current life convinces him that they are real. Richards hunger for knowledge and a new life is as powerful, if not more powerful than a craving
How long has it been since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real”(Bradbury 39). Against all the dangers involved with reading, he steals a book and reads it: “Montag had only an instant to read a line… His hands had done it all, his hands with a brain of his own, with a conscience and curiosity in each trembling finger, had turned thief”(Bradbury 28). He goes from destroying books and feeling pleasure from doing so, to being curious and intrigued by them.
I began to read not out of entertainment but out of curiosity, for in each new book I discovered an element of real life. It is possible that I will learn more about society through literature than I ever will through personal experience. Having lived a safe, relatively sheltered life for only seventeen years, I don’t have much to offer in regards to worldly wisdom. Reading has opened doors to situations I will never encounter myself, giving me a better understanding of others and their situations. Through books, I’ve escaped from slavery, been tried for murder, and lived through the Cambodian genocide. I’ve been an immigrant, permanently disabled, and faced World War II death camps. Without books, I would be a significantly more close-minded person. My perception of the world has been more significantly impacted by the experiences I've gained through literature than those I've gained
The fundamental questions of how and why we read have an infinitude of answers, none of which entirely 'do the job', simply because they bear too closely upon the automatic, (and therefore, to us, secret) processes of the mind; the act of reading is too closely related to the act of living in the world for us to comprehend definitively. There are few writers who understand and exploit this primal link more persistently than Jorge Luis Borges. One of the ways in which he forces us to examine the parallels between reading and existing (I use the word 'force' because it is not always a pleasant confrontation) is through the thematic use of memory.
Love - possibly the most powerful four-letter word known to man. A feeling and emotion so strong that it makes it nearly impossible to put its meaning into words. However, it is also one of the most explored subjects in the world of literature. Whether in a comedy or a tragedy, the theme of love is very often expressed. This theme can be expressed in many different ways, for example, positively causing everyone to live happily ever after in a fairytale type of world, negatively being the cause of death and anywhere in between. In Aristophanes Lysistrata and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the theme of love is present throughout moving the story along through many trials and tribulations; however, Lysistrata is more of a love of beliefs of freedom empowered by the drive for sexual desires where as A Midsummer Night's Dream is the search for true love between young couples.
To fully comprehend a work you cannot just read it. You must read it, analyze it, question it, and even then question what you are questioning. In Richard Rodriguez’s The Achievement of Desire we are presented with a young Richard Rodriguez and follow him from the start of his education until he is an adult finally having reached his goals. In reference to the way he reads for the majority of his education, it can be said he reads going with the grain, while he reads a large volume of books, the quality of his reading is lacking.
My passion for the fascinating wolrd of science literally can not be put into words. Since receiving my first home science kit at five years of age the way things work and why has always been at the forefront of my mind. During my early years I would find great delight in examining anything I could fit under the lens of my telescope. I will never forget my first look at the intricate detail of a human hair.
Memories are things that shape our feelings and what we chose work on for many, if not all, different subjects. The most affluent memory I have concerning reading was that I remember reading books such as the Eragon and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. These memories are the earliest I have of reading and because I enjoyed them so much I have been very fond of reading many different books. I cannot remember anything about reading before these books, which was sometime around the 4th grade, so the memories have influenced me to enjoy reading a more fantasy style. All of my favorite books and stories have been fantasy and I believe this to be the case because of the major influence of the Eragon books, which fascinated me, that I read early on. Before reading the fantasy genre of books I do not remember
Humor is an essential part of my daily life. Causing someone to laugh and feel amused varies from person to person. What I find funny may not be funny to others. My sense of humor may vary, from watching comedy movies, to late night comedy talk shows. What I find mostly funny are Internet memes or funny Internet videos, because they have both been modified into distinct funny phrases or modified into funny videos that cause humor and they are always new ones being created, you can also share them to give someone else laughter. My sense of humor comes from my dad, growing up we would watch Spanish comedy on television together, though not all humor can be funny, because I believe there is a line that should not be crossed when using humor.
At no point in life can you be perfect at anything, but you can prepare yourself for the adventures of life. One of life’s biggest challenges is marriage. Marriage requires preparation emotionally and spiritually. Marriage is considered to be one of the hardest aspects of life to control. Merging two different customary lifestyles into one can be difficult especially since the feelings of both are involved. I have learned both the numerous ways to destroy and build a successful marriage. Marriage is the union of man and woman becoming as one flesh according to God’s law and the law of the land.