Midsummer Night’s Dream: I would have to agree with Priya that I had rather high expectations for this play, mainly because it’s a Shakespeare play. I thoroughly enjoyed this play because it was the first comedy I read by Shakespeare. Of course it is a very well written play, but I feel that it could’ve had a deeper story line. Yes, there is a lot of depth when it comes to symbolism and there was definitely a good message, but as I said, there could have been more. Overall, it was a nice break from some of the slower things we sometimes read in English class.
Inherit the Wind: I really liked starting the year off with a pretty easy read that could get us a little warmed up for the start of the school year. I also liked the fact that the story was told through a play, because I think it would have been really dry if it had been made into a novel instead. The insight of what went on during the Scope’s Trial for a fiction point of view was not only unique, but beneficial. I think that sometime’s people shy away from history because it is usually presented in the form of long textbooks. However, Inherit the Wind, was not very dry and it helped me to learn about our country’s past without becoming bored.
First They Killed my Father: To be honest, I was not excited at all to read an autobiography about the genocide in Cambodia over winter break. In fact, I complained about it a lot, until I actually began to read it. Once I started reading it, I began to really like it, not because it was a happy novel but because of the raw emotion I could feel when I read it. Loung Ung did a really good job of getting to readers’ hearts and getting them to think. When I was reading about how difficult things were for her and how someone was arrested for not sharing a dog they had killed for food I was both shocked and moved. It made me think more about how lucky we really are to live in a stable democracy that a lot of people don’t get to experience. Overall, this was the most moving work of literature we’ve read this year.
My Antonia:I would definitely have to agree with Elizabeth and some of my other fellow classmates about Cather’s unique writing style. Cather is a brilliant writer who really knows how to make visual descriptions and almost bring things to life. It’s interesting because although I enjoy her writing style and vivid descriptions and would have loved to talk to her, I was not really found of My Antonia. I almost felt as if the entire point of the novel was to tell a story about a girl’s life. Yes, Cather was creative in some parts, such as the mystery narrator in the beginning, but overall, I think the novel was pretty boring. She may have had some meaning about how hard it is to survive as a poor immigrant family and how to show strength, but there are many other novels that portray these lessons in a more intriguing manner. I did not hate this book, but it is probably not a book I would suggest for someone else to read either.
Catcher in the Rye: I had a hard time deciding whether or not I liked this book. While I was reading it, I was not particularly fond of it, but afterwards, when I was writing my Catcher paper I started to like it more, which was weird because I had already finished the book. Reading the book the first time, kind of reminded me of My Antonia in that it was just another kid struggling through life, but it was also different. I feel that symbolism was a lot more prominent in Catcher in the Rye than in My Antonia. In my opinion this symbolism of children’s innocence, being a catcher in the rye, and the ducks made the novel have more of an impact on me. At first I didn’t really get the concept, but later I was thinking about it and it all made a lot more sense. Yes, the novel is about a kid who swears, ditches, and drinks, but it is also about protecting others and making good things come from bad.
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