This week in class we focused mainly on the poem (read: excerpt) of the week, Elegy in X Parts by Matt Rasmussen. Through the course of the week, we had multiple discussions on different aspects of the poem and filled out the TPCASTT form. This week’s poem was based on the suicide and aftermath of Rasmussen’s brother, and as sad as it was, I enjoyed analyzing it! I feel like I learned so much this week about what the meaning of a poem could be based on different aspects of the poem itself. For example, who would’ve guessed that the structure of a poem may have symbolism ( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ not me), but this week we discussed the idea that the couplets may resemble the relationship between Rasmussen and his brother and then in the last line Rasmussen is alone, and his brother is gone. I also learned that you can read a poem aloud in multiple different ways, you don’t always have to pay attention to the spacing and punctuation the author uses. Overall, I felt like I learned some useful techniques that would help me analyze poetry in the future! I’m not sure if it was because we spent more time on it in class, or if I participated and paid more attention in class, but I feel like this poem was much easier to analyze that The Eagle by Lord Alfred Tennyson. I honestly feel like I could tell you the possible meanings in this poem in my sleep! Although I missed Friday, I feel like I could’ve written a bomb essay for this poem! Overall, I am very happy with the progress I made this week and I am super excited to work with more poetry soon!
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(After finishing and re-reading my blog, I realize that it focused more on the articles I read outside of class, than what we actually did in class...oops!) Something that really stood out to me this week was the difference between general fiction (a story) and a piece of Literature. Now this may not have been the main idea in class this week, but it's something that interested me and I decided to look into it, and quite frankly I couldn’t figure out how to write 250 words about how we connected our summer reading books to How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Up until recently, I always thought there was a big difference between general fiction and literature, but I’m not so sure anymore. In one of the article I read this week, the differences between literature and general fiction was that literature is generally more controversial, complex, and has an overall lesson to it. Frankly, I think this is a giant load of malarkey; general fiction can be just as complex and controversial as Literature. Take 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher for example. The book is about a girl revealing why she had committed suicide and contains a lot of sexual content (including a rape scene). How can you get any more controversial that that?! As for the overall lesson, I believe that everyone can learn something from any book, simply based on how you think about it. The only difference that I have found between Literature and general fiction is the fact that Literature tends to be older. Think about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. When this book was first published, it was a piece of general fiction! It was an adventure book for boys! And my grandpa’s favorite book! But now the only reason it is considered Literature, is because it was controversial for its time and is old. Authors don’t write books planning on them to become timeless literary classics; they write what they think people of the time would enjoy (just like commercial fiction). Time is the only difference between 13 Reasons Why and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I don’t want this to seem as if I was attacking Literature, I am confused as to why everyone seems to classify them in different categories. In reality, general fiction and Literature are more similar than people think. (Although I missed a couple days of school this week, I think I got the general gist of this week's lesson) This week we focused on the poem, “The Eagle” by Lord Alfred Tennyson, but more specifically, we honed in on learning how to analyze the poem. Through the course of the week, we completed multiple activities to help the class get different perspectives and break down the poem. We discussed our ideas as a class, discussed what specific phrases in the poem may mean, and filled out the TPCASTT form. I’m going to be honest, I’ve never liked poetry and I’m not very good at trying to decipher the meaning behind it. I think it’s because I’m a very literal person. The first time I read “The Eagle”, I legitimately thought it was about an eagle. I’m dead serious I thought it was about an eagle that climbed a cliff, stood there, and fell and died. I was so out of tune with this poem that I thought the eagle died! And as embarrassing as it is, I didn’t realize there could’ve been a different interpretation until we discussed the poem in class. Once, we started our class conversation it dawned on me that there is so much going on in the poem, and that maybe the eagle wasn’t meant to be interpreted as an actual eagle ( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ who would’ve thought). I did find TPCASTT a bit confusing, and I think it was because my brain couldn’t comprehend that there could be so much meaning in such a short poem, as well as the fact that some of the boxes purposes’ seemed to overlap a bit, but breaking down the poem little by little really helped me focus and figure out what was happening. Another source that really helped was this article, which broke down most of the key elements in a poem and really helped me properly analyze “The Eagle”. I may have struggled with this week’s poem, but I actually really excited to analyze more poetry, and I’m glad that we get to do it every week! On Tuesday afternoon, I walked into Room 202, dreading what I thought this class was going to be. I expected a boring class that wouldn't truly challenge me, with a boring first day of ice breakers and syllabus run-downs, much like every other class that day. I was pleasantly surprised, when by the end of the first day; we were already working on our first assignment, You as a Reader/Writer. The main ideas for the first week of class, were reading and writing (surprise, surprise, this is an ENGLISH class), but not in the way I thought it would be. I've never had to think of myself based solely on my reading and writing, and I probably struggled more than I should’ve, but I learned something from it. I’ve learned that reading is a lot more about the process of actually reading then it is about the storyline. Before this summer, reading to me was simply trying to finish the story, while still understanding what was happening, but after finishing, How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, I realize that books have layers of symbolism, meaning, and references, and there is no “right” or “wrong” way to interpret it! Our whole class can read the exact same book, and come up with twenty-something different interpretations, and that is so crazy cool to me! I feel as if I have already learned so much for this AP class, and am beyond exited to explore reading more with my new insights! |
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