Making Advances As I Was Thrown Into The Wind
Being a student who expects a lot out of themselves and strives to do my very best, I came into this class with a strong outlook. I have always been someone who loves to write anything, including essays, poetry and songs. Therefore English classes have always been one of my strongest subjects. There have been quite a few things in this class that have helped me further my literary skills. These include; creating literary analysis, receiving feedback from workshop on my essay, reading book length texts,
Creating literary analysis for articles, excerpts, novels and critical analysis of novels/and or films has really helped me improve my comprehension skills. Even though English has always been one of my strongest subjects, before entering into this class I really struggled with being able to comprehend the information that I was reading. The first time that I was told that I had to create an analysis of the information that I had just read I got this terrible feeling that I wasn’t going to be able to do it. As I started writing my first analysis it was hard at first but once we started writing more and more I realized that I was getting better at being able to comprehend the texts that I was reading. Therefore having to create literary analysis in this class has helped me greatly improve as a reader.
Receiving feedback from workshop on my critical analysis essay of Noah and Ally’s Love Story, helped me be able to see not only small mistakes that I make while writing but also ways that I can take my critical analysis and craft it into a larger essay.Another thing that helped me as we were doing workshop in class was reading and critiquing my classmates essays. This helped me because I saw things in their papers that I could have added to my paper to make it better, which will help me write better critical analysis in the future. A line from the film that I used to help me create my analysis were these lines spoken by Noah, “It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be really hard. And we’re going to have to work on this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me.” This quote shows the love that he feels for Ally and also shows the main starting point of my paper.
Reading the two book length texts, Serafina and the Black Cloak and Swing Time has been very beneficial to me as a reader. Both novels have broadened my outlooks on both fiction and nonfiction stories. These stories differed greatly not only in content but also in the reading level. I have always been a fan of fairy tales ever since I was younger and Serafina and the Black Cloak was a novel that really reminded me of fairy tales. The following quote from the novel shows how the forest adds fairy tale elements to the novel and the dangers that the forest had that her father tried to warn her of and she later discovered this in the novel, “Sera:our world is filled with many mysteries, things we don’t understand. Never go into the deep parts of the forest, for there are many dangers there, birth dark and bright, and they will ensure your soul.” (pg.60-61). The forest is a big element in this story that makes it relatable to a fairy tale.
Annotated Bibliography
Beatty, Robert. Serafina and the Black Cloak. Disney/Hyperion, 2015.
The non fiction novel Serafina and the Black Cloak is novel based upon a girl named Serafina who is an orphan and she lives in the basement of Biltmore Estates. During the night there is a mysterious man who comes to the Biltmore house and takes children one by one each night. Serafina has her own encounter with the mysterious man and is determined to solve the mystery of the Man in the Black Cloak. The novel takes readers through all of her journeys and obstacles as she tries to find the identity of the Man in the Black Cloak and locate all the missing children.
Bettelheim, Bruno,” The Struggle For Meaning”.The Uses of Enchantment, New York:Alfred A Knopf.1989.
In Bruno Bettelheim’s essay, “Introduction: The Struggle For Meaning”, he explains that fairy tales teach children many things, such as the meaning of life. Bettelheim also mentions how fairy tales contain moral lessons that the children soon encounter as they grow older. Which in turn helps the children handle real life situations such as death and fears in a different manner.
Kichener, Caroline. “Why So Many Adults Love Young-Adult Literature.” The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/12/why-so-many-adults-are-love-young-adult-literature/547334/, 1 Dec. 2017, Accessed 25 Apr. 2018.
In Kicheners article she is telling us readers why there are so many adults they love to read young adult literature. She talks about how adults read Young Adult fiction as an escape from reality. She also says that adults reading young adult literature goes back to Harry Potter because before these novels were written a lot of people wouldn’t have considered reading books that were written for children. In the United Kingdom, Harry Potter books were published with 2 covers one for children and one for adults.
Lewis,Michael. The Blind Side: Evolution of Game, Chapter One Excerpt.Norton, 2006.pp. 15-16
This excerpt from” The Blind Side” shows the 5 seconds of the football game that ended the quarterback of the Washington Redskins, Joe Theismann’s career. It also talks about how people don’t see fear as a factor in professional football, because people just assume that these players are just immune to emotions. This excerpt is trying to tell us as readers that even the strongest of people still have feelings and emotions.
Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times, http://www.newyorktimes.org, 20 Jan. 2012, Accessed 25 Apr. 2018.
Matt Richtels article “Blogs vs.Term Papers” he talks about the differences between both blogs and term papers. He gives other people’s insights and opinions of replacing term papers with blog assignments. Among the people that he included in his article, Douglas Reeves and William Fitzhugh argued that replacing term papers with blog posts makes students lack the skill of critical thinking.
Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. 2016. Penguin, 2017
“Swing Time” is a novel that takes us readers through a journey of the narrator, who remains nameless throughout the novel. The novel begins in London and follows the narrator’s trip to West Africa. This is a non linear novel as it goes from past to present tenses. The novel shows the development of the narrator and Tracey’s friendship and how life, love, fame and fortune can interfere with relationships.
Works cited
Beatty, Robert. Serafina and the Black Cloak. Disney/Hyperion, 2015.
Cassavetes,Nick.The Notebook.2004. New Line Cinema Film
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