Coming
into AP Lit, the idea of reading books over and over was tedious. But now,
after analyzing The American Dream time
after time, and currently working on a read-through of Death of A
Salesman, I understand why we do it.
Honestly, I like it. I feel like I actually get to understand every little
detail in the piece, which makes for an overall more enjoyable reading
experience. The first time through The American Dream, I literally had NO CLUE what was going on. But by
the end, after reading it multiple times myself and participating in numerous
class discussions, I finally understood the symbolism, the characters, and all
the other dynamic, dense aspects of the story.
So
what else? Along with dissecting the American Dream, we learned about The
Theatre of Absurd and comedy rules. Both of which, as awful as those packets
were to annotate, actually helped me understand both the play and future
readings. It is so strange to me, at first, this class seems like it is filled
with such useless information (no offense Ms.Homes) but then, it all actually
helps you. Even when I am sitting at home watching a movie I will think of some
rule of comedy and see it in the movie. The more we discuss it in class, the
more I understand how to use it. But that’s how everything is. The more
discussions we have, from The American Dream to the literary terms, I understand it better and better. That is why
those are my favorite days: the ones where we sit in a round circle and talk
about whatever the topic of the day is.
I
am interested to see how I did on the in-class writings. It is hard to say if I
need a tremendous amount of help on them or if I am some-what on tract.
Hopefully, we will review those papers soon (both the ch.4 and The Century
Quilt) so I can see what I need to do for them. While talking about the Ch.4
essay I will say I liked the paper MUCH better then the quiz. I felt like it
helped me to actually have my book open while writing. The information actually
made sense and I was able to put it to use instead of just attempting to
memorize it for a quiz. I also really liked how we tied it to The American
Dream. It was not only fun, but made me
think abstractly too.
And
last, but certainly not least, the terms test TAKE 2. I am so frustrated with
this test. I spent hours studying for it and I actually felt like I understood
the information but then I ended up getting the exact same grade as last time.
This was not only discouraging, but also confusing. It is hard for me to
understand how some of those questions were fair. I mean honestly, something
can be incongruity, verbal irony, and invective all at the same time. But on
the brightside, I now feel like I actually understand the majority of the words
and will be able to put them to use. Even now, I feel like my vocabulary has
grown and that’s what that exercise was for. Right?
