Literature is a way to go somewhere without having to leave your seat. It is a way to experience places and cultures that are different from your own and meet people that do not exist. My parents always exposed me to books and literature from a young age and they passed on to me their love of reading. One of my earliest memories is of my mother taking me to the library and helping me pick out books. Later, as I got older, she or my father would read to me and let me read to them, it always seemed like they had all the time in the world to listen to me. I think in part this is one reason that I’ve always loved to read and preferred it over watching a movie. I guess in some ways reading reminds me of family and simpler days.
Sometimes literature can teach you a lesson that life or a movie wouldn’t have time for. Regardless of what era the literature is from or whom it concerns, it can teach you something worthwhile. Even if it is just learning the patience to sit down and finish something you start, such as finishing a thousand page book would or immersing yourself in a world that is not your own. In most cases literature can give you a better appreciation and understanding about a topic or story than another medium could. For example when you read The Handmaid’s Tale and later watch the movie, it is only in the book that you understand and feel Offred’s desperation and raw hopelessness. The movie cannot impress upon you the rigid and harsh rule of Gilead and its people, even after you have finished the book the impression and sadness that you feel takes a while to diminish. I think this is one of the most powerful aspects of literature and the reading of it. It can make you feel things that cannot be explained away, it can create emotion s that may feel as real as any in real life.
I do not exactly know how this class will alter how I perceive literature I probably won’t know till the semester is over. I hope it will make me more understanding of the undercurrents and symbolism of the literature I read. Sometimes it seems that in reading you can get so caught up in the interactions and trials of the characters that you forget that any meaningful story has an underlying meaning. I hope going through this class will help me to appreciate the reasons that writers put pen to paper, not just to pass the time or fill the empty hours but to inform and change people and their outlooks. I think sometimes it’s rare to find really great books that can change how you look at something or how you perceive it. Hopefully, by heightening my senses through literature and the exercises in this class, I will be able to transfer this perception to real world experiences and understand people and what motivates them better. Besides achieving growth in terms of literature and perception I hope this class will aid me in my writing ability. By reading and practicing with exercises’ such as this blog I think I will be better equipped and experienced to do well in future classes, besides English.