A Problem of Choice

The choice project was really interesting. I thought it let me get into the heads of the characters better. Sure in my opinion Holden’s head is crazy, and Jane wouldn’t change a story if she had the original on hand to read, and Titus (from feed) just has a shortened expression of pop culture and movies to draw from. Since I had an earlier post on how fairy tales change I tried to explore this in my choice project. I wrote them as though years really had passed between telling and different cultures and different people had changed them. It was more difficult than I’d imagined getting into the heads of these characters would be.  Also after hearing everyone’s ideas I really liked all of the creativity in the class and how many different things were done with mostly the same books.

Reacting To Persepolis

I really enjoyed reading Persepolis for my college literature class. I learned things I never knew about Iran and their culture. I liked hearing this girl’s story of struggling between her past/present/future and culture/beliefs/government. I thought it was fascinating to watch her grow up in pictures from a little girl in God’s arms to a woman leaving her family.

Speaking of the artwork:

I liked that we had to read this because it was a graphic novel from the beginning. However, I wasn’t sure I liked the style of art. After reading it I’m still not sure but it has grown on me significantly. I think her simple style actually accents her story where more realistic illustrations would have overpowered the story. These, however do not, tugging the story along at just the right pace in my opinion. And some of the slides are just so detailed and lovely and meaningful in their own way. For example pg 77 the illustration of their trip to Europe has a woman dancing in the wind. Why is she there? What does she mean? Why put the leaning tower of Pisa next to a run-down apartment? None of this would have been questioned from the text on the page “Things got worse from one day to the next. In September 1980, my parents abruptly planned a vacation. I think they realized that soon such things would no longer be possible. As it happened, they were right. And so we went to Italy and Spain for three weeks… …it was wonderful.”

Wrongs and Rights of Passage

In college literature today we read an essay called Wrongs of Passage and while I agreed with many of the author’s points I have a problem with some of the others. She has the structure correct separation, transition, and incorporation—that’s how a right of passage should be conducted and if it doesn’t it isn’t really a right of passage. She focused on a few examples: sweet sixteen, turning eighteen, turning twenty-one, marriage, the Navajo Changing Woman ceremony, and the one of boys in New Guinea. The ones of America she disagreed with because they have been corrupted into meaning little and being superficial. I agree with her about them being superficial but I don’t agree that they are even rights of passage (except for marriage but I’ll mention that later). None of those first three in the list go through any of the steps, you aren’t separated from anything and nothing changes however there are many that actually are. I believe Marriage is one of these, you are separated from single life then transition into married life then settle into and incorporate marriage, yes you can get married in Vegas or get married without family or friends there but I think rights of passage are about the journey and the personal meaning rather than being there for the community. Another actual right of passage of the American people is graduation/going to college/moving out of parents’ house, I count them as the same thing because it happens at a different point for most people but it is an important part in growing up. You are separated from most of your family and friends and high school, transition by moving away and/or going to college, and incorporate into your daily life.

As I already stated I think going to college is a right of passage and it is one that I will be undertaking quite soon and it scares me as well as makes me excited for the future as a right of passage should do.

Becoming The Feed

I thought Feed was a fascinating book, however it wasn’t the plot that I found compelling as much as the setting. Feed is set in a futuristic society, a cautionary tale if you will about where our own society might be heading. In the world of Feed most of the population has a computer chip implanted in their head from a young age, it grows to take over the basic functions of the human brain. You can play games, watch shows, talk to people, it’s like TV the internet and cell phones all rolled into one and you can see it in your head, like you’re there. The environment sucks, so horribly that people live in domes to keep them safe from the radiation that still keeps them from having children naturally. Corporations brainwash people through the feed. People are less intelligent because they don’t have to know things, the feed knows them. People use more primitive language because chat speak has evolved and just become the language. I loved this book because it is a window into the apocalypse that might become our future, not because robots take over or zombies attack but because technology will allow a select few to rule us all while making us totally ok with it. The technology to do these things is coming and I ask you if an apocalypse like the feed truly occurs what would you do? For me it would mean becoming a hermit, or something of the like, hiding from society because I couldn’t be a part of one where everyone follows blindly and silently. Let voice speak out let the human mind rise to its potential of greatness; don’t take over its functions with a machine.  It would be a shame, a shame that I see as possible in the near future.

Jane Eyre

1. If you were in Jane's (very plain) shoes, would you decide to stay with Rochester or would you leave? Why?

If I were in Jane’s shoes I would have stayed with him. Granted I live in a different time and have very different morals than Jane. I unlike Jane don’t care about what society thinks nor am I as religious as she was.

2. What were your final reactions to the novel? What did you like or not like about it? What worked and didn't work?

I really liked Jane Eyre, it may not be the easiest to read but the prose was beautiful which I really enjoyed. I didn’t like the large areas where the plot didn’t seem to move forward much. But overall I thought it was a great book and a good love story.

3. Should this book be taught in College Literature? Justify your response, and try to look beyond your personal thoughts on the book to the larger goals of the class.

I think Jane Eyre is a good book to teach; however, I think that whenever you teach it there will be a large number of students who don’t read it, a larger percentage than usual. If people do read it though I think it has merit both as a piece of literature and an entry into what we might have to read in college.