After reading a plethora of novels, poems, and short stories, I thought it would be interesting to see what works of literature we would have liked to have read this year.
I would have liked to have read Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird. Although most of the students have already read this work during the sophomore year of English, I thought it would be interesting to interpret the work at a more mature age. I remember the piece encompassing a great deal of symbolism. It would have been interesting to analyze this symbolism on the Advanced Placement English level. Furthermore, it would have been interesting to relate the author to her work, as was done in the research paper, for To Kill a Mockingbird was Harper Lee’s only work of literature. Finally, when interpreting novels in the classroom, comes the various opinions of those in the group. I would have been interested to hear the novel’s analysis from my peers’ point of view.
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I agree! However, I'm not much of a book reader so I can't really expand on what specific books, but I'm thinking more of genres. We did read pretty diverse books, but maybe for the students next year, instead of focusing on books for the AP test, they could read other books that have to do with things such as comedy or sci-fi. I think it would be a good break from the actual serious learning, but it would also keep the class involved as a whole. I like the seminars and I think that could continue even with these "side" books. :)
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of books I would like to read but the first one that came to mind was The Odyssey. This is probably because I think it's one of the most popular books to allude to, and for one, I like to be able to understand all the allusions. And I have a thing for mythology.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember what it was called, but I remember at the meeting we had before last summer started when Mrs. Black was going over the books we would read, she said something about a Communist Superman book. I think it was a comic book. The premiss was something like, Superman lands in communist Russia instead of Kansas, and is raised on Communists ideals. It was a "what if" sort of book. I was really disappointed that we didn't get to do that one. I may have to look it up this summer. (las free summer for the rest of FOREVER) Does anyone remember that? particularly the name of it?
ReplyDeleteGood idea, Anna. I would have replaced Beowulf with Le Mort D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. It was a much more piece of contemporary English literature.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I would have liked to read The Illiad. I've read the Odyssey, and hated it. But I've been told those who hate the Odyssey end up liking the Illiad. I guess it's like the whole if you hate Algebra thing, then you'll love Geometry.
ReplyDeleteI would have been excited about reading either The Odyssey or The Illiad. We read a lot of books from the beginnings of English Literature but I think it would have been interesting to read one of these books which would have given us a chance to experience the beginnings of other cultures' literary movements.
ReplyDeleteOr... If we're really in to Chaucer... Why not "Book of the Duchess?" We'll not be complaining about Canterbury Tales ever again... No sir.
ReplyDeleteTo go along with Phil somewhat: I think it would have been nice to read, "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White. It's the story of young Arthur and his lessons with Merlin. It would have been a nice reprieve from the classics.
ReplyDeleteI went to the reading list and looked up plot overviews for some of the books and I think it would have been interesting to read "A Separate Peace". I liked how the author seemed to parallel a war on the outside, WWII, and an inner war as Gene struggled guilt and envy towards Finny. Because the story flashes back to the past, I feel it shows that irrational acts in the past can still cause regret in the future and I think that goes with when people make certain choices they don't fully understand what the consequences they will cause in the future.
ReplyDeleteI would've liked to read The Scarlett Letter. This is because we were supposed to read it in English last year and we never got a chance; and I heard a lot of other students say it was interesting.
ReplyDeleteI would have like to have read something more akin to The Wave, which we read during sophomore year with Mrs.Black, if some of you in our class remember. Granted, we had 1984 and A Brave New World but I seem to be oddly attracted to literature of that nature? It seems like that literature of that kind has always fascinated me.
ReplyDeletePlease don't kill me, but I would have loved to have read more Jane Austen books. As much as I adore Pride and Prejudice, I feel that we probably could have benefitted more from Sense and Sensibility. I also feel that we only discussed Pride and Prejudice minimally and would have liked to have gone into further detail about Jane Austen's works. What can I say, I'm a sucker for happy endings. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kelly, I love Jane Austen books, but I would have loved to have read Emma. From what I've heard it's pretty witty, and I love romances with a twist.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to read the graphic novels, V for Vendetta especially. I suppose I can read it on my own, but I think it'd be a lot more un reading it as a class and discussing it. Also I wanted to read Atlas Shrugged, but I don't think you can read that in school. I would have enjoyed hearing Bruno's opinion of it.
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