Literary Masterpieces: Prior Expectations
Literary masterpieces can create numerous emotions for a reader. Depending on the story, format, characters, and elements, some stories remind me that love never dies; still others, I could not even get past the first page. My expectations before beginning this course was that vocabulary and content would be difficult and I may not understand what the author is trying to convey. In order for me to understand what I was reading, I had to realize there are other dimensions of each society that needs to be taken into account. I believe literary masterpieces are based on politics, religion, and cultural traditions of that time period. I expect without a point of reference, stories would be difficult to understand.
Expectation of Written Literary Masterpieces
When I was younger, teachers handed out books for students to take home and read. Some of these books were not short stories, but instead, thick novels that were several hundred pages or longer. My expectations were that it was going to be a long, boring, and torturous few months trying to digest the material. Overall, I would have to say that I was right, but there were a few stories that surprised me. As an adult, my tastes and interests have changed, and I think that the struggles of the characters in some of the books I read in the past can be equated with the struggles I endured as well.
Understanding and Appreciation
In high school, I did not appreciate the stories that I was forced to read. I could not see how I could relate to any of the characters I read about. It was not until I experienced real life and its tragedies, that I gained an appreciation and understanding of certain stories and the characters in them. In my own life...
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...more involved with the reading in this course, I understand the political undertones, religious themes, and the cultural awareness that I need in order to fully comprehend the meaning the authors convey. I believe it will be a challenge, but I will have a new perspective as well as new expectations as I continue reading literary masterpieces.
References
Ismail, M. (2008, February). Literature is the mirror of society. Campus Notes, 1(13), 1-10. Retrieved from http://gulfnews.com/about-gulf-news/al-nisr-portfolio/notes/articles/literature-is-the-mirror-of-society-1.86134 Sparks, N. (2014). Nicholas Sparks: The Notebook. Retrieved from http://nicholassparks.com/stories/the-notebook/
Twain, M. (1884). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York, NY: Charles L. Webster and Company.
Retrieved from
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/76-h/76-h.htm
By using words such as “mediocre,” and other words, Prose shows that in her own reasoning, the literature is not so much literature, but a waste of time that is taking attention away from actual good books that have content will instill a love for reading. Prose destroys the idea that the books provided to the students in the educational system should be deemed best sellers because she explains that the only reason this books are so well know, is because of the fact that they are forced down the throats of innocent teenagers. She also explains that teenagers are incapable of reading such stories because of the “overuse” of metaphors, and that we cannot read line for line books. If we cannot read a book line for line, than what should we
Parker, Robert Dale. How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford, 2011. Print.
Burke, Kenneth. "Literature as Equipment for Living." The Critical Tradition (1998): n. pag. Web. 7 May 2014. .
They say never judge a book by its cover but I have found myself to do just that. My experience with literature has been roughly the same all throughout my life, if I see a good book then I’ll read it. But if it is something boring or I am being forced to read it then I will not read it. For instance, if someone handed me a Harry Potter book there would be no problem. However, hand me a textbook then it is a completely different story. All throughout grade school it was the same especially when it came to stories like “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet”. This can be tied to an earlier article we read about college kids avoiding literature, because they are forced to care about stories that we are told are so great. But in reality I feel as if I will always have this mind set about literature, because nothing I have read has changed my mind.
I would only read books that were required for class, and even then I usually would not finish them. Reading was never something that I liked. When I got into high school, I started reading books for fun a little more than before. I was always a Harry Potter fan but since I did not like to read I only watched the movies. I remember reading those books and actually liking them. My junior year was also a time in my reading history that I remember well. As a class we were reading the Great Gatsby in time to see the movie for the midnight premier. Each day we were instructed to read up to a certain page, no further. I did not like the book at first, just like any other book I was forced to read for school. But, one night I was reading and the book got so interesting for me I could not put it down. That was the first book in along time that I enjoyed reading that was assigned to me. After my junior year, I went right back to my old ways of not reading books. My senior year I took AP English, so this required a lot of books. Thinking back to that year of school I remember finishing maybe one or two of those books. Although, I didn’t read all of those books, I still got a good grade in the class. One thing I did learn from that class about not reading all the books was reading the summaries is not good enough because, they leave out all the
Kennedy, X. J., & Gioia, D. (2013). Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and
Before reading Harry Potter, I very rarely read for pleasure. I found reading boring, almost old fashioned. My frame of mind more readily paralleled Danny Divito in the movie Matlida, who says that “[t]here's nothing you can get from a book that you can't get from a television faster.” While my view of reading as a child could be summed up in that quote, everything changed when I was introduced to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I can remember to this day when my Dad began reading Harry Potter to me, and how I did not understand just how much this book would change me. Harry Potter and his world of wizardry became my own personal Shangri-La, my escape, my own world. Anytime I wanted, I could ascend to a world of fantasy and explore the depths of my own imagination in a way that I had never been capable of doing before. I became obsessed with the book, reading it before, during, and after sc...
From reading Alice in Wonderland to now, I have grown to appreciate literature much more. At the beginning of the year, I read purely because it was assigned for me to read, and I only read for important events and story plots. When reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time, I missed everything that Lewis Carroll was trying to convey to the reader. I had no idea that he had written Alice in Wonderland with the intention of preparing children for the real world. I thought it was just a story full of random events and nonsense, but after my realization of a deeper meaning, I grew to appreciate his efforts. From then on from Beowulf to the Fairie Queene, I have learned to see literary works as more than just stories but a...
Twain , Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2003.
Twain, Mark. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: W. W. Norton & Company inc. 1990.
If one were to look at my varied reading habits, they would be struck by the diversity and over all unusualness of my mind’s library. I hardly remember the plot of the first book I read, but it was called Lonesome Dove. It wasn’t the actual first book I read, but I don’t really count the McGregor Readers from kindergarten. I read it in first grade because of my Grandmother’s fascination in the T.V. mini-series that was playing during the time. I wanted to be able to talk to her about it so I went to the public library that weekend and picked up a copy. Well, I actually didn’t pick it up, it was too heavy. It took me over two and a half months to read, but with the help of a dictionary and my grandma, I finally read it from cover to cover. I can’t really say that I understood it, because I don’t recall what it was about. But I do remember that it was quite an ordeal. Since then I have read many books. I enjoy fiction the best, especially those that are based on society, but have a small twist that leads to an interesting story. Some of the stories that I remember best from that early time in my life are Tales from Wayside Elementary School, Hatchet, The Godfather, and The Giver. I think that Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, is the only book that I’ve read more than once. I liked the situation that Brian was put into, lost in the wilderness, with nothing more to fend for himself with than his mind and a trusty hatchet. The adversity he faces and his undying drive are what fascinated me most. Since that time my reading habits have grown into a different style. I have usually only read what was assigned to me during the school year because that was all I had time to do, but I have always strived to put forth extra effort. For example: last year for English 3 AP we had to read an excerpt from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. Although that we only had to read a small bit, I checked the entire book from the college library and read it all. Although the way that Franklin rambled on and on about his “Franklin Planner” was somewhat boring, the way he describe his life was pure poetry.
Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from: https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.10.2/sections/h2.1
My relationship with books and reading has not been the greatest adventure for me thus far. I will not say that all my experience has been terrible but for the most part not that great. I know for me it started when I was little and unfortunately it has carried to my adulthood.
Sadly before I was able to end my journey through Hogwarts, some other kid who now I try to think was just as eager to find out the fate of my literary friends as I was stole my book from me. I was so upset by the loss of my personal copy that I waited two more years to try again. When I finally finished the last book and all was well I pushed Harry to the back of my mind where he stayed for some time. Fast forward a year and I was having a really hard time in life. I found solace in books, particularly the books about the wizard with lightning bolt scar. The farther I got into the stories the second time the more I could relate to some of the problems he had, maybe not so much fighting dragons and killing a basilisk, but living in a home full of people who don’t really want you, and feeling the pressure of trying to make everyone around you happy even if it meant sacrificing your own happiness? Yeah, that was something I could relate to. Harry Potter was always a martyr, the lives of the people around him always came first. I didn’t have an evil dark wizard trying to kill all my friends at the end of each school year, but I had two and very separate families to try and
For as long as I can remember, I have had a special place in my heart for reading. As a child, fantasy was always my go to genre. I was always excited to start a new adventure in these stories, that I quickly sped through them without a second thought. As one can imagine, its was hard to find a character that has as much of a love for books as the child reading the story might. The stories were always about the daring hero and his quest to defeat the vile villain and save the world.