How I Met the Learning Outcomes for English 251

1. Know Basic Literary Terms and Methods

I feel like I have met this outcome. While learning drama, I did a post where I focused on terms used in Drama. When analyzing a show, A Second Birth, I looked into the terms such as props, scripts and a summary of the show to describe the performance.When doing nonfiction, I looked into the literary terms and methods that were used in the bible, especially things like foreshadowing. Over the term, I believe I have gotten to know the terms well enough for literary conversations.

2. Know Basic Literary Genres and Representative Texts

When I was learning about Nonfiction, I realized that there was a lot of forms of nonfiction that I read on a regular basis, including the scriptures, speeches and journals. For the social media and family  assignment, I created my own version of a nonfiction text, doing a literary criticism. For my final paper, I looked at the subgenre of feminist literature which could apply to many sets of genre, including fiction and nonfiction. I feel like I have learned a lot about genre and how to differentiate them, especially when it comes to nonfiction.

3. Write Literary Arguments

This one has been a major focus this semester. I believe I first started learning and doing this one when I summarized Death of a Salesman and when I looked at A Second Birth and how it was different from script to performance. These summaries have been beneficial in helping me learn how to form a literary argument. I also did this with The Importance of Being Earnest. The first time I feel I made a literary argument was when I took Katie Roiphe's "Do We Secretly Envy the Childfree?" and debated it from the other perspective of the ridicule people who decide to have a lot of children receive and how it is not right. My Social Media and the Family assignment was a version of a literary criticism, which took on a part of a literary argument. As I began to write my paper, I started writing a thesis about the influence of literature in our modern world and delve deeper in the thesis assignment where I had to rewrite my ideas five different ways. I soon said the difference between defending and empowering tones in feminist literature. This post was the beginning of my writing process. This finally ended with my preliminary draft and finally my last draft. This final assignment was able to help me go from summarizing texts to making my own arguments.

4. Engage Literature Creatively and Socially

I struggled with this one at the beginning of the term because I didn't know what Dr. Burton meant by "creative". After our meeting together, I realized I needed to bring my love of stories and movies together. In my social media and family assignment, I used my father as an example in the text. Though I never got the chance of mentioning it in a post, I began to use a website named flixster.com which was able to help me to get more in touch with movies I enjoy and putting both literature and movies together. In another class, we were reading James Joyce's Dubliners, which inspired me to want to make a movie of my favorite of the stories, Eveline, which I wrote about in this post. I also put myself out there by putting up a story I wrote as a sophomore. I feel like I enjoyed blogs more now when I was able to take things I enjoyed and apply it to my posts.

5. Use Emerging Communication Tools and Pedagogical Methods. 

I used Facebook a lot this term to receive help for my final assignment. In two posts, I mentioned conversations over my statuses. This one was my first one, where I just mentioned the idea on feminist movement on our modern society. The next one I posted was a personal conversation between my sister in law and I had about feminist literature. I used the library website to be able to find a literary reference to assist me in my paper. I still continue to use Goodreads, where Richard and I have had the chance to recommend books to one another, and it also helped me to have literary discussions with friends on Facebook.

The Story of my Paper

At the beginning, when I was wondering what to write about, I looked at the many posts I made pertaining to family. I wrote about my feelings on the lack of discussion on those who choose motherhood, parental relationships and many other things that talked about my love and emotions for my own family (like the poem my grandpa read me or poetry my grandma wrote). As I looked more into, I realized that what literature has done is making me look deeper into my emotions of a woman's position and responsibilities. Certain texts were able to reach to me more than others, and I began to think about the influence literature had in the feminist movement, and how it influences me as a girl in the 21st century.
I started by asking some friends on Facebook about how the Feminist movement has changed our society within the past 50 years. I got very conservative answers, considering many of my friends are conservative. I also got responses from those who are in their 50's and 60's and saw their perspectives on how the world changed. I feel like literature had to be a prominent influence in this change.
Doctor Burton asked us to rephrase our thesis five times in hopes that we would create the best thesis. I was frustrated with the assignment because my computer had died that weekend, but I was amazed at how it began to make me think of the differences between feminist literature in the Victorian age compared to our modern world.
After all of this, I went back to Facebook, where I had a conversation with my sister-in-law. This was able to help me get a stronger perspective on my topic. I began to create a better idea with Victorian and modern literature and looked deeper into the subgenres that feminism goes into. I knew that to be able to understand this set of literature, I would have to understand the authors, which is what my literary reference did for me. I was able to study more about the authors.
I wrote my Preliminary Draft which got me on the right track to write My Final Paper! Now, I am left with a better understanding of a subgenre of feminism and how it affects me now.

Preliminary Draft

Taylor Briggs

Gideon Burton

Fundamentals of Literary Interpretation

June 11, 2013

Feminism: Defending vs. Ranting

            Literature has a way of explaining the ideologies of the world during it’s time period. In the Victorian Literature Age up till about the 60’s, feminist literature was very prominent. Women were trying to gain their God given rights and to escape from the bland lifestyle that had become accepted for them as a woman. Though not everyone agreed with feminism, and the argument could be made that some went overboard, the case is not whether or not the feminist movement was the best for society, but how it was able to relate to other’s and their opinions, and how it no longer does this today. If society is to look into feminist literature, they should look into writings that were written in the Victorian Age up until the early 60’s because they have common ground for all readers to relate instead of just one opinion for one group.

My Literary Reference Work

To read and understand every book, article and idea about feminism within literature would be absurd. So, to narrow my topic, I began to look at certain writers who have impacted feminist literature, and looked to see their views and opinions, and how that may have affected their work, along with looking at the works themselves. When I was looking for something to help me get to know these authors and writers better, I found in the subject guide, when I looked at women's literature, they had an encyclopedia of women writers from colonial times to the present times. It  focused on American Writers, which helped me to look into people such as Kate Chopin and Naomi Wolf. This book called American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present was able to help me get to know my authors I would be focusing on better. This was able to help me become more knowledgeable on my subject without reading hundreds of books.

Doing Something That Scares Me

So, I feel like over the term, my goals have changed. My original interests for the course are different than they were, and now I am left with different goals. I feel like now, I want to focus on poetry and a reading for a different class which has really caught my attention, Dubliners, by James Joyce. Another thing I want to be able to do is to start putting my own writings out there. I am gonna post a link to my father's blog, where he put a short story I wrote my sophomore year which has been my pride and joy. I look at it now, over three years later, and I realize there are things I can change and edit, but I'm still proud of the original accomplishment. Putting something out there for others to read scares me more than anything, but I feel like I really should. Can anyone who reads this post their thoughts? I feel like I want to review and edit it. Please remember, I was 15 when I wrote this.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/146216180/Lockets-and-Pearls

The Story "Eveline" as a Movie

In my 295 class, we are reading James Joyce and analyzing the literature to "join the conversation". Basically what that means is we want to be a part of the conversation that Joyce critics have amongst each other, and be able to have opinions and ideas to share. A story we read in this class earlier was a part of the Dubliners collection which I'm studying. The story was Araby and it was interesting to read it in two different classes and to get two different perspectives on the same story.
This set of stories has really caught my attention. I love the stories. Joyce was able to create characters and situations to explain what he believed was plaguing Ireland, especially Dublin-- Paralysis. Joyce wrote these stories to try to become a "savior" to Ireland by helping them realize that they were stuck, not moving or changing or taking control of their lives. He wrote each story to pertain with paralysis and the moment of epiphany where they realized how stuck they really were. Then, the stories would end and we wouldn't see what they did with that knowledge, leaving it to the reader to decide.
As I read these stories, I think about how amazing it would be to see these stories performed, with the director's and actors own perspectives on what happened. Joyce is very vague with his stories, so it can be analyzed any way and still possibly be correct. One I am currently reading that I really am enjoying is "Eveline". I would love to see this one performed, with someone like Amanda Seyfried as Eveline, Chris Pine as as Frank, Amy Adams as Mrs. Hill, Eveline's mother and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Mr. Hill, Eveline's father. I would love to see this created, because there is so many perspectives on the characters, especially Eveline and Frank.

A Subgenre of Fiction

Yeah, it's fiction. But, it's so much more than that. Feminist fiction is more than just a pretend world written by an author. This literature is works created by women who are looking for a way to get past all the emotions of being trapped or held back by the social world. I believe that those that were written during the Victorian age up till the 1960's has character and morals that can address emotions that are common among the entire human race. That which is written in our modern day contains the same aspects, with strong woman characters. The main difference between the modern and the Victorian would be the text, involving whether it was women escaping a mental imprisonment or women appearing that they are better than the men within the story. These forms of literature talks about overcoming the traps and becoming more. Besides the fiction, there are nonfiction feminist writings that go into the personal feelings and experiences that the feminist women have gone through, which often sounds like more of a rant of hurt feelings than actual literature.

Feminist Literature: Victorian Period to the Modern Literature

I am not a Feminist. I've never been and I really doubt I ever will be. The reason that I am looking into feminist literature is because, no matter the literature, I feel like it is necessary to write something that can cause anyone to relate. The thing about the Victorian time period up into the early 1960's is that no matter what, I was able to relate to feminist works, not due to their feminist nature, but because I can relate to the emotions and the feelings of being trapped or held back. Though I don't agree with the social movement, I do realize the good that is within the text.
The modern writings within the feminist genre appear crude, unable to relate to anyone who isn't a feminist and just lacking the morals that differentiate it from a rant by a feminist and a story that can withhold the test of time. This text is often frustrating and insulting to me as a woman because it seems to be very one sided. If any other opinion was brought to the table, it would be ignored.
This is important to me. Feminism affects our world, still, even when things have changed and things are so much more different than they were 60 years ago. If we continue to allow feminism to change the world we live in, it needs to be for the better instead of for the bad. More perspectives is fine, but forcing a rant into the readers is too much. Victorian feminist literature has values that go past it's feminist message; it is able to speak of feelings involving being trapped or held back from your potential, which is something all people can relate to.

Response to Comments: Defending and Empowering

So, Dr. Burton made a point to me that my claims were all too broad. I don't know if it was the struggle of trying to fit my ideas into a tweet of different types of claims or if I just didn't understand what I was getting at. I began to talk to my sister-in-law, Julie, and decided I wanted to look at the difference between feminist literature from now compared to the late 1800's and early 1900's. Julie and I discussed how we both see that the original "feminist literature" had merit and purpose and fought for rights that were deserved. Now, we see the feminist literature to unite women together to be trashy and inappropriate and that they fight a battle that is already been won. Though women aren't perfectly "equal" to men, we are given the opportunity to decide for ourselves and to have a voice. My sister-in-law said:

I think it appealed to the emotions of women who felt like their voices weren't being heard. And that eventual anger led further and further away from the basic tenet of equality to the extreme version of feminism we have now where men are denigrated and family values are destroyed

and sent another message saying

I think those with bad intentions used the emotions of the literature to appeal to the general population of women who weren't being heard and it eventually transformed into a group that could be manipulated and exploited with their insecurities.

I responded to her opinion by saying:

  Hmm I agree. I've read literature of this nature from 1800's and early 1900's, and I feel some have some genuine merit, but I feel like after the feminist movement, all the literature and articles written were almost trashy in nature, the way that they attacked instead of defend, if that makes sense. 

I went on Goodreads and pulled up the genre "feminism" and was shocked at what I saw. The titles of the text were shocking and in your face, as if you had to be a feminist or you were a bad person. One title worked off the idea of a certain "lady's part" which left me distraught. As I read the modern writings synopsis, it was about fighting the man and feeling like the woman was higher than the man. It's one thing to defend a person's God given rights and something else to belittle those who aren't a part of your circle.

Charly helped me by mentioning different authors and writings to look deeper into. I want to be able to compare the affects both literature has on those who are reading it. Charly made a comment where she said: 

 Also, I personally believe literature is as much reflective of the society that's already there (written by women, in this case, who live in that society) as a driving force for change. To paraphrase another midcentury figure, Don Draper, "we can't sell people what they don't already want."

I've read literature that would be considered "feminist" but also considered classics. Even though I don't relate myself to feminism, I was able to understand the characters and their motives. I feel like the affect they had on me was beneficial, no matter my stance on a woman's place in the world. Before the 60's, women were searching for a voice, for this literature, stories and articles were a motivation to find that voice. Now that women are able to use their voice to influence the world, they are left to try to gain more power than others around them, and this motivational and empowering text has turned into a power struggle.

I feel like as I delve deeper into my topic, I'll be able to understand it all better, and maybe make a stronger and better argument.

 

Feminism in our Modern World

Our nation is entirely different from what it was 60 years ago. If you compare the 50's to our modern 2013, the way the family, motherhood and the American Dream is percieved is drastically different. In the 50's, woman's main responsibility was motherhood and raising children, while the father was out working to gain success and maybe be able to reach the American Dream of successful lives with the white picket fence. Now, in 2013, the family has been changed to be single parents, divorced parents, married and many other types of parents, with kids, stepchildren, adoptive, foster. The American Dream is simply to have a job to uphold you, and for some, to make their career the foremost responsibility to reach their greatest potential. My question is to see how feminist literature has enhanced the feminist movement, and how that has affected the society we live in now, whether for the good or the worst.

Policy Claim:

Feminist Literature from the 1890's

To be able to understand our current world, a person should read the feminist literature to help them understand the feminist movement and it's affects on our society.

Definition Claim:
Feminist literature is a large part of feminism, which has changed the way our modern society functions.

Comparison Claim:
Feminist literature made a larger affect on society in the 60's than it did when a lot of it was written in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Evaluation Claim:
Pre-feminist movement literature was better than the current feminist literature and articles written in our day.

Cause and Effect Claim:
The use of feminist literature during the feminist movement has changed the perception of woman and their roles and responsibilities in family, business and educational lives.

Literature Changing our Modern World

I've realized that my focus in writing has been based on families. Whether it is analyzing a poem my grandpa and dad used to read to me, stories about a mother talking to her daughter, analyzing an article about the purposefully childless, ect., I have a focus with things that involve family, or my family. I began to think of how I would relate this to literature and everything, and I decided to look deeper into what has been a common theme amongst my posts. I decided to start by asking my friends on Facebook, "I have a question for all of you. How do you believe the American Dream, the role of women and the importance of motherhood change from what it was 50 years ago? Any comments will be incredibly helpful :) Thanks guys!" and I had a friend leave with this response, "I think that the feminist movement of the 60s, that not only encouraged women to enter the workforce but denegrated those that chose to stay home, helped the decline of the traditional family. Add to that " the pill" which encouraged promiscuity and the lack of a stigma attached to unwed mothers (so the fathers decided they did not have to stick around) all aded tothe decline. Motherhood is no longer a valued vocation...except in çertain areas." I feel like my question has evolved. Now, I want to know how literature from all genres might push the feminist movement, and how it might have ultimately changed what we consider the American Dream, the role of women and the importance of motherhood. 
Literature is incredibly powerful. It has a way of changing the entire world. We learn about stories like To Kill A Mockingbird, poems and plays by Shakespeare, speeches and letters by Martin Luther King Jr. I feel like literature places the idea in the mind of the reader and attempts to lead them in the direction of this idea. I feel like literature had to be a large part of how the feminist movement took control and changed our world and the family drastically. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to be a feminist means your bad or wrong, it just means you are sepreated into a class of people that changed the world and the way things are done in our country. 
I hope to get more comments in my status to understand other ideas on how it changed, and maybe hear some of my feminist friends mention something that can help answer my new question. 

Social Media is Bringing Families Together

A bishop in California is struggling on how to advise his youth on social media. He knows that it is a useful way to spread the gospel and to preserve relationships among families and friends. He also struggles knowing that it can be the force to tear apart families. Things like pornography, profanity and evil ideologies are all over the social networks. This bishop had a daughter and son at home when the social network craze began, and he feared for his own children's salvation. This wasn't just the youth in his ward but it was his eternal family that could be affected by the evil side of social networks, even if they originally wanted to support the righteous and good things. The Californian bishop still struggles with his judgements on it, but he has learned that the only way to preserve his youth and his family is to become a part of the new social network craze that is sweeping the nation and the world.

The Term, Non-fiction

I have a greater appreciation for this genre than I did a week ago. I never realized how much of it I actually read. When I read Martin Luther King's "I Had a Dream", I never thought of the genre of it. I guess a part of me did not even realize it could have it's own drama. When I thought of "nonfiction", I thought of autobiographies and personal essays. It never came to me that there is so much more to nonfiction. There's speeches, scriptures, sermons, theology, philosophy, and more. It's funny how almost all forms of writing can be seen as literature when seen through the right eyes. I read a poem and analyzed it, called "Casey at the Bat". It wasn't all that intellectually puzzling or led to strange forms of analysis, but it had an overall theme that as a child, I could take with me through life. I've realized that it doesn't have to be the ancient scrolls or a Shakespearean play to be considered literature. It just has to have meaning, and something for the reader to search for.
In all honesty, not all writings are a form of literature. It is astounding how many actually are, though. This section has opened my eyes more than any other, because now I realize that everything can and possibly does have a deeper meaning than we believe, at first.

The Literary Connections in the Scriptures

My senior year of high school in my AP English class, we were asked to read portions of the Bible. This wasn't for religious purposes, but to look at the stories. It never really connected with me that it could be literature. In that class, we did a very surface look at the stories, and didn't really dig too deeply. In my seminary class, though, we were reading the Old Testament, and looking at how all those choices led to the consequences. One I remember was learning about Abraham and Lot. Abraham basically forshadows Lot's demise by giving him the choice on where he wanted to go to live. Another thing that my seminary teacher, my older brother Jared, pointed out was the symbolism where you pitch your tent. He taught our class the idea that where we, as people, pitch our tents will be where our heart will lie. Lot had pitched his towards Sodom, and he and his family were ultimately corrupted by the evil that crept into their hearts there. Abraham pitched his tent in the quieter, less enticing land, but was ultimately blessed all his life for his righteousness.
Being a member of the LDS church, we are blessed to be able to have understandings of books like Isaiah and Revelations which is filled with metaphors and symbolism. I always knew you could analyze the scriptures, but I never really thought of it as being a form of literature, nonetheless a form of nonfiction. I read nonfiction everyday just by opening my scriptures. I learned about the metaphors and the symbols, but I never really thought of the genre of the scriptures. I guess that I have more experience with this genre than I had originally thought.

A Different Perspective

In Katie Roiphe's "Do We Secretly Envy the Childfree?", I felt like I was recieving a lecture on not judging others for their personal decisions. This is fine and all, but I feel like it lacks the other side of the debate; those who decide to have several or more children recieve just as much judgement as those who don't have children at all. Even in Provo, UT where most of the community is Latter-Day Saints, I get strange looks when I say I am the youngest of eight children and have a sister with seven children. If we are going to promote the idea of being nonjudgmental when it comes to other's decisions on having or not having children, that should include those who decide to have more than two or three kids. I personally want to have a lot of children. This isn't because I want to overpopulate the Earth, get a welfare check from the government or because I want to be the annoying mother in the supermarket. It is because I want to be able to raise a large family to support one another in the crazy world out there. Is that wrong or should be looked down on?
One day, in the P.E. class I assisted in, the gym teacher and I got into a discussion about children and how many people should have. He went off on a tangent about how having a lot of children is a terrible thing, and that, just like in China, we should be limited on how many children we should have. He gave me the welfare and overpopulation debates and I sat and listened quietly. At the end, I replied saying I wanted to have a large family so that my children might be the changing affect in schools, workplaces and in the world. We left, neither persuading the other, but I feel we left with a different perspective than before.
I personally feel the greatest affect I can make in the world is raising respectful, polite and intelligent children to enter into the world and to make a difference. This doesn't have to be by creating new laws or changing the way we do things. It can be that one person that smiles at you on your worst day, and makes you feel like you were noticed. I want my child to be the one that gives someone faith in humanity, and give them the confidence to believe that the world isn't completely lost yet.

I believe William Ross Wallace says it best when he says, 

"Woman, how divine your mission, 

Here upon our natal sod; 

Keep—oh, keep the young heart open 

Always to the breath of God! 

All true trophies of the ages 

Are from mother-love impearled, 

For the hand that rocks the cradle 

Is the hand that rules the world."

The Importance of Being Ernest.... or Jack?

I have heard of The Importance of Being Earnest but I haven't heard, read or seen any of the story. I don't even know what it is about. As I read the first scene, I was interested in the man Jack, or is it Ernest? The introduction of any story, whether it is movies, books or plays, is what creates the story. With a bad beginning, the story is doomed to fail. The opening scene introduces characters and a future problem, the lying of Jack's character to the woman he wants to marry.
While reading this, I began to think of every possibility that could happen with this situation. I think about every classic story telling when the man lies to the woman he loves, but I can't say how it will end or what will happen. The beginning scene made me want to read and see the story from beginning to end, and to put the time to learn about these characters.

A Second Birth: A Script and a Show

During the Fall, I was in an Introduction to Theatre class. We were asked to read a script written by a BYU student, Ariel Mitchell called A Second Birth and then go and attend the show. As I read the script, I got an understanding of the story and what was happening, but it was just dialogue. It was harder to picture a complete story and set in my mind without an author describing every detail to me. I enjoyed the idea and I was interested in what I would see.

The story is about a young girl named Nasima, from Afghanistan.

Her parents had her pretend to be a boy,

that way she can work, make money and improve the families social standings.

The story revolves around her learning how to behave like a woman so she can get married.

More than anything, 

this story is about her learning about herself.

The script was well done, but the performance was better. They used a round stage and limited props. The costumes were beautiful colors and brought the audience to another world. The limited props caused the audience to created the world in their mind. They used just enough props to clue the audience on what this world would be like. For about an hour and a half, me and my roommate were able to go to Afghanistan and watch a young girl our age discover who she was and her purpose in life. 

Drama is able to grab hold on the hearts of it's audiences in a way that movies and books can't. It is something that can bring you into a new world and introduce you to new people that you can almost consider your friends. 

Death of a Salesman (Spoilers)

The only day I would have been able to attend the Shakespeare in the Park would have been Saturday, and I was sick, so I opted on watching a perfomance from the library of Death of a Salesman. I was amazed at the characterization of Willy, the sixty-three year old salesman who continues to live in the past while dealing with the issues of the present. Throughout the performance, you can see the guilt and the regret of choosing the life of a salesman and the act of adultery during his time on the road. Willy has a conflicting relationship with his sons and those he works with. He constantly tries to commit suicide, and ultimately does on the road.
The character created is one who believes so much in the American Dream. He believes that if he is well liked and works at it, he can have ultimate success, which he never does. Willy suffers from delusions, when he goes back to times in his past that had affected him, like conversations with his dead brother about turning down working in Alaska and the memories of when his son, Biff, lost a chance at graduating because he had failed Math. As the performance continues, you see the built up regrets and guilt that had happened over the years. To Willy, he was worth more dead than alive.
What I found interesting was how Willy dealt with money. In the show, Willy makes no salary to pay off his house and insurance, which is almost paid off. Instead of taking a job with his neighbor and "only friend", Charley, he instead borrows money. Instead of taking another job and earning money and pride, Willy declines the job and borrows the money. He is consumed with finding success as a salesman and promises to pay Charley back, which he ultimately doesn't do.
Willy is a complicated character. To understand him, you have to step inside the mind of a man who had used the past 30+ years as a salesman to end up fired at 63. I enjoyed the perfomance and the way that the character was presented.

The Features of Drama

Our readings for class mainly involved the different features and elements within drama. It contains a lot of the same things as literature, including exposition, the technique by which a character presents background information, dialogue, the conversation between two or more characters, conflicts, rising actions, climax and the denouement, the "untying" of the conflicts. What truly seperates drama and simple literature involves the way it is performed.
Literature is read.The tone and word choice carries the story and helps it to create themes that a reader will continue to take with them. A drama or a play can be read like a story, but is most powerful when performed. Actors and directors cause the story to be told with a certain tone of voice and certain movements to create a completely different world for the viewer. I liked how in the reading, they mention how the person who writes the script is a playwright instead of a playwrite. Wright is a word for "one skilled in manufacturing three-dimensional items." A playwright does not simply write words, but create a three dimensional world for their viewer.
The types of drama helped to create the genres of plays and movies that we in modern society enjoy. It can be broken into two groups: Tragedy and comedy. These continue to be broken down more, into Melodramas, tragicomedies, problem plays, romantic comedies, and even more. These help to formulate characters to last in the mind of the viewer, such as the tragic hero.
Dramas are able to create a perfomance that no other form of entertainment can. It can leave and endless emotion with the audience that they will carry with them the rest of their lives. I cannot say that dramas are better than literature, or vice versa. Both serve differnt purposes.

The Next Steps

My Original Plan
My original Self-Directed Plan was to reread one of my favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird, finish The Memory Keeper's Daughter and to read (restart) Les Miserables. I feel like now, my main focus is to really start to recognize poetry and to begin to enjoy it. I have started reading and have began enjoying it more  with the discussions in class. I also have started Frankenstein, which has been fun, but I have not had as much time as I would have liked to put towards it. I am going to rededicate myself to reading the book, and continue to look into poetry, along with the other two genres we will be focusing on in class.

Learning Outcome #1:
I feel like I need to put more focus in learning the literary terms for each section. I never really have much focus with them in my blogs. I did have one that talked about the unreliable narrator. In my post, about Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, I discussed things like voice and symbolism within the sonnet.

Learning Outcome #2:
I have always had an idea about the different genres, such as the ones we're studying: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. As I have learned more, I have begun to think about the ways I can seperate them even more, like with fiction you have romance, young adult, thriller, and what not. The same with poetry with how you can break it down into haikus, sonnets, lyrics, limericks and whatever else you want.

Learning Outcome #3:
I have done literary analysis that have been more informal like in A&P where I talked about how this was a good representation of male perspectives. It often reminded me of the conversations with my 19 year old brother. I also did this on parental relationships in the story Girl and with my own relationships with my parents. The one where I had the best analysis would be in Shakespeare's Sonnet 116.

Learning Outcome #4:
This class has helped me to help with social relationships. I connected with my brother in law on Goodreads and have found books I also wanted to read based on movies I have seen. I have been more excited about reading throught the discovery of Goodreads.

Learning Outcome #5:
This is the learning outcome I feel I really need to focus on. Besides organizing my plans with books and what I would like to learn through Goodreads. I also have begun to explore another literacy form, poetry. I started out hating it, and now I am starting to appreciate poetry because of this term.