Reflection About Contemporary Literature

In Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, a blind man guides the narrator towards an epiphany: he needs to see situations and people in a deeper way, rather than just from a materialistic point of view. In the beginning of the story, the narrow-minded speaker is originally opposed to having the blind man, Robert, stay in his home. Because the narrator realizes that there is a nothingness in his life, he eventually grows to admire Robert’s ability to have faith in people, relationships, and the world even though he cannot see. When the narrator closes his eyes while the two men are drawing a cathedral, his spiritual growth in the story becomes apparent to the reader and to himself because he notices that by drawing with such passion, he has begun to

Throughout this course, I have discovered that literature is more than just words being brought together by an author to form an emotionally charged story. Literature provides an engaging outlet into an imaginary realm to its audience. As the reader is captivated by the story, poem or play, a, emotional connection is established.

The story of Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, shows that you do not have to see someone or something in order to appreciate them for who or what they are. It is about a husband, the narrator, and his wife who live in a house. The wife, whose name they do not mention, has a very close friend who is blind. His name is Robert. Robert's wife dies, and comes to their house to spend a couple of days with the narrator and his wife. The narrator, whose name they do not mention as well, is always on edge because he does not really know Robert very well and he does not like blind people, but he is being friendly for his wife's sake. The story comes to an end when Robert and the narrator draw a cathedral together using the narrator's hand and helped by

When taking English Composition 2 I have learned various things that I can carry through with me throughout the rest of my academic and social life. The class English Composition 2 touched on the components of character, setting, short story, drama, and poetry. With each section and a lecture on each section I have taken away a piece away from each section, one thing that is for sure I will never read literature the same after this class. When talking about character we looked into the story Gorilla My Love and how the story is told through the eyes of a young black girl named Hazel. Concluding from this section of the class I learned that if the characters were to be different characters the story would change as whole. When looking deeper into the concept of setting as a class we had the opportunity to learn how to depict where the setting is, and learn how the setting can make a difference in any type of literature. For the concept of short stories as a student I looked deeper into the story of 20/20. After, a struggle on the topic of short stories I learned the different compontes that go into and are used in making a short story. For an example, the story 20/20 uses the model Freytag’s Pyramid to tell the story line. The component of Drama happened to be my favorite component of the class. I

“Cathedral” by Carver isn’t a story that immediately grabbed my attention. By the way that the story is written to the actual story itself, it was missing something that made me want to continue reading it at first, but then I realized that there is a purpose for it being that way. I felt disconnected because that’s how the husband felt. This story had more to it than the author lead on. After looking back at the story I realized that although one of the characters is blind, it’s actually two that were blind and the second being the husband.

Everyman, by the anonymous writer, is a play that can truly be analyzed under a literary theory lens. Everyman can be analyzed under a performance theory lens, not only because it is a play, but also that the actions of the character fall within the several categories of the theory. The play can be seen as following the structure of the religious ritual while following Everyman through his completion of the sacraments. Secondly, Everyman encounters many sacred characters, including, Death, God, and an Angel. The characters portray performing objects in which throughout the play these characters are personified. The characters are personified as human companies to Everyman, although they are actually a part of him taking on the role of seven deadly sins the characters portray different influences within Everyman’s life. The goal of these morality plays were to entertain the audience, which is an aspect of performance theory, but that these players were also used as a way of teaching the

1. Why does Lizet feel like a fish out of water both at Rawlings and at home in Miami?

Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism are just a few examples of the many styles of writing that exist. Each style of writing deals with a specific time period. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”, Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”, and Mary E Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother” are just a few examples of the literary works that represent these time periods. These literary works are perfect examples of the specific time periods each writing style was popular among certain authors. These stories allow readers to compare the modern times that we live in currently to the period these authors were in. They also allow the reader to branch out and be different.

Next, I will reflect on the effect of using the approaches we discussed above. This will be addressed in three main points: what does the literary lens that I used most often allow me to notice in literature, what are the drawbacks to using this lens so frequently, and how much my engagement with literature would’ve changed if I had used more of the intertextual lens that I used the least.

I viewed reading as a chore, was often unenthused, and would mostly annotate on the overarching themes without gathering any meaning from them. Books were merely a series of words printed on paper. This school year, however, I began to understand the allure reading has to offer. I have grown to appreciate reading and the insights a book can offer. When reading our numerous texts, I was able to live vicariously through the characters of the books and relate aspects of their lives to my own. Because all of the books from English I pertain to coming of age, I was able to not only learn about maturation as a process, but understand how it pertains to my own life. Through protagonists such as Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye or Esperanza from The House on Mango Street, I learned about my “misguided desire to preserve childhood innocence” and to empower feminism similar to Holden and Esperanza respectively (Heart of Gold, Raghuram). Gradually, I have finally developed the ability to relate to novels and its characters amidst writing my own story.Whether it be thematic elements or the details of a case I am working on, I have become more observant to even the most trivial details. Now when I read, I not only look at the themes, motifs, and symbols, but also repeated phrases or situations that parallel each others as well as the symbolic meaning behind some ambiguous phrases or scenes. Reading now, in contrast to last summer, is a

Freedom is one of the pillars on which modern society is built upon. Our freedom, though it may give sadness, also gives purpose and quoting Walter Wangerin Junior: “The difference between shallow happiness and a deep, sustaining joy is sorrow”. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World demonstrates a society deprived of its freedom through societal conditioning. The first instance of conditioning is the consumerist ideology and this ideology causes the loss of high arts and culture. The second instance of conditioning is found within the forced dependence of recreational drugs, causing the population to constantly pursue a shallow and temporary happiness. The third instance of conditioning is found within the caste system and prevents any individuality

In the duration of this course, I was more informed on how English literature was started. I became more educated on how the styles and tones the authors utilize have an affect on the readers. Although I had already read many of the stories we studied, I became more enlightened on the background history of the authors of those stories. Becoming more cultivated on the authors enabled me to view their accounts in ways that I wouldn’t have usually considered.

In today’s 21st century of life, there are millions and millions of books, short stories, and poems. Authors have been scripting out different tales since before the 1st century. Therefore giving one plenty of options when it comes to not only reading, but analyzing, evaluating, and even interpreting the literature standpoint that you receive from picking up a good book. The three themes from the book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, written by Thomas C. Foster, can be applied to pieces of literature such as Frank Stockton’s “The Lady or the Tiger?”, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Several themes in How to Read Literature Like a Professor like “Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires,” “Now Where Have I Seen Her Before?,” and “Is That a Symbol?” play into the famous short stories mentioned above. “The Acts of Vampires” is a theme that deals with “The Lady, or the Tiger?” and how the corrupt older male strips away the females virtues and youth. “Now Where Have I Seen Her Before?” deals with the short story “The Lottery” and how every story comes from another story, and nothing is original because it is always a spin off of another book. Lastly, “Is That a Symbol?” deals with “The Minister’s Black Veil” and how symbolic the minister’s black veil really is.

I learned so much in this course from literary element to my personal being. In this class, it's not a boring class with long lectures and the professor gives bombards the students with homework. It's about growing and developing your writing, using skills and element to prepare for the college and real life ahead,

Literature is normally influenced by a particular time period. Most literature is influenced by war, poverty, or any other social movement. People write about the events that took place, or they just describe the time period, in like what many writers did