First Semester Review

Since I don’t adhere to society’s rigid standards, I’m going to throw caution to the wind and go out of alphabetical order. To begin, since I just talked about wind, I will discuss…

Inherit the Wind:

This was probably my least favorite of the books we read. Okay, it’s actually a play, but I’ll refer to it how I please. Although I found the underlying themes of individuality and the freedom to think important to consider, I didn’t necessarily care for the way it was portrayed. The way in which this theme was developed seemed alomost a bit too obvious. I personally like having to think a bit more about the author’s point, and in this work it’s right out in the open. Personally, I think that this is something you have to watch onstage to appreciate, since I feel that its format as a play loses some of the human element and emotion that one would see in a live show. Despite this, I enjoyed the fact that it paralleled real events, which only served to emphasize the importance of considering its point.

Catcher in the Rye:

I definitely join the consensus that it took a while to get interested in this novel. I was excited to read Catcher because it seems to be one of those works everyone needs to read. At first, I was taken aback by how simplistic the writing was. This frustrated me because I had been expecting something more earth-shattering. But then I realized that I had missed the point. The book was only enhanced because Holden’s colloquial narration is believable and authentic. I really enjoyed how this added to the underlying theme of childhood by emphasizing Holden’s child-like mind. Additionally, I had to think more about Salinger’s point than in some of the other works we read, and I relished in the challenge. Thus, its apparent simplicity was a great deal more profound than I had originally acknowledged. This is definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read.

My Antonia:

Before I criticize this novel, I’d like to acknowledge that Cather’s writing is extremely beautiful. To me, it was different than a well-written book. Cather’s descriptions are stunning. I don’t think I’ve ever read any other book in which I could as vividly picture the setting as in this one. Cather took experiences on the prairie so far from anything I’ve ever experienced and portrayed them in an extremely simplistic, yet profound manner. That being said, I found parts hard to connect to, likely due to the aforementioned fact that I’ve never experienced events similar to those in the novel. This also wasn’t helped by the disjointed time sequence in the novel, which skips multiple time periods I’d like to know more about. That being said, Cather likely did this on purpose to add to its journal-like quality, but I personally just didn’t care for this. Even though this wasn’t my favorite of what we read, I definitely enjoyed it.

First they Killed my Father:

Apparently I didn’t learn from Catcher in the Rye, because I also started out annoyed by the child-like narration in this memoir. However, I stand corrected again, because I came to think of this as one of the novel’s biggest strengths. I realize now that this made the memoir into one of the most authentic I’ve ever read. Loung Ung recounts her experiences exactly as she experienced them, which is from a child’s perspective. This makes the memoir so much more honest, as presenting as an adult with years to contemplate her ordeals would clearly have made the novel different, possibly even inauthentic. Although I didn’t think this was necessarily the best choice to read over winter break (Sorry, Miss Berdick), as I would have preferred something slightly more uplifting I definitely found it to be extremely thought-provoking. Today, we often take our comfortable lifestyles for granted, and this novel definitely exposed the wrongs of this complacent mindset.

Midsummer Night’s Dream:

This was my favorite of the works we read this year. This is partly due to the fact that I’m a major nerd and love Shakespeare, but many other factors contributed as well. I’ve read Midsummer before, and since I typically refuse to re-read anything, I wasn’t exactly thrilled when we were assigned this. However, I now understand so many aspects of the novel that I completely missed. While I only really understood it on a literal level the first time, this time around I felt like I really comprehended all its messages. Even though it’s lighthearted, there is definitely some heavy societal commentary in there. I particularly enjoy Shakespeare’s subtle jabs at royalty. In addition, there were some points where I literally laughed out loud, which I also missed some of the first time I read it. In addition, I really like listening to the audio recording, as it got us a bit closer to what it would be like seeing it as a play. So to be sure I'm being clear, I really like this play. A lot.

Elizabeth Davies