Literature of Years Past

 Here is a quick snapshot of the literature I've been exposed to over the years in school:

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Catcher in the Rye

Death of a Salesman

Inherit the Wind

The Road

Romeo and Juliet

The Giver

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The Lottery

Shape of a Girl

Lost in the Barrens

A Mid Summer Night’s Dream

The Reader


Below is my response to the literature I've been exposed to:

            Over the course of my academic life I have been exposed to an abundance of different texts, short stories, plays as well as novels. I’ve noticed that for a lot of my fellow students, they don’t enjoy the course readings we are assigned. For me, on the other hand, I find that course readings usually give me nothing but positive experiences.

            For me some of the most enjoyable readings I’ve come across in my literate life have been those given to me by my English courses. For example, one book that I hold to this day as one of my favourites even though I read it first six years ago is The Giver. I found that The Giver was a compelling story and it really took me into the character’s world as well as made me personally attached to the characters’ well-beings. It was the first book that really evoked emotions out of me.

            I find that the novels all had effects on me, finishing each one felt like an accomplishment. However finishing things like Shakespearian play did not give me the same satisfaction. When reading plays like Romeo and Juliet and A Mid Summer Night’s Dream didn’t provoke any emotions out of me. I feel that this was mostly because I did not quite get the same satisfaction out of them, I find Elizabethan difficult to understand, therefore by reading the plays it was basically like reading another language, and I did not enjoy the constant need to ask for things to be transferred to modern day English.  

            Overall, the readings have all affected me in different ways. Even though I have had negative feelings for some it still leaves me with a satisfactory feeling that after I’ve finished a book I can now relate to other people as well as understand more about the world around me.

            I feel that there is a certain value to the exposure of literature. I feel that by being exposed to these types of literary works it has helped my classmates as well as my self’s creative writing skills. I also think that this exposure allows us to grow as a person and understand more thoroughly the world around us. Without reading certain literary works many of us would not be exposed to cultures outside of our own. By reading a novel, play, short story or poem we are able to put ourselves outside of our regular surroundings.

            I think that much of the reasons that it is mandatory as students of Ontario to have taken English every year throughout our academic life are stated above. It allows us to grow as human beings and helps our minds develop more thoroughly, and can make us a more tolerant and better person in the process.