Literature Engaged

 "The Rape of The Lock" was an interesting read I had in another class this semester. It was one that I actually found to be funny and interesting in a class I had determined was kind of mundane. It is a mock epic, and it would pair nicely in a unit of real epics. The students would be able to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of this mock-epic and a real epic. They would be able to see how the structures are the same, they would be able to see the role that the supernatural play in each of them, and it would be something funny and light-hearted to follow a real epic like "The Aeneid." (I mention this one because of how much I dislike Odysseus, though I guess his epic might actually pair better). Regardless of what real epic is taught, the function of the epic poem will still be similar and the students will be able to analyze the texts and see what makes one real, and what makes one a mockery. A fun activity the students might enjoy doing is out...

 This book is and always will be one of my favorite books of all time. The main character of the story, Aza, deals with anxiety daily. She internalizes it until she cannot anymore, and this is something that I have always found related to me on a deep, indescribable level. Aza is afraid of germs, but it is much, much deeper than that. Though my big anxiety has less to do with germs, and will not be disclosed on this blog post, I still felt that a lot of her thoughts and actions in the book were something I could identify with. It also helped me to cope with my anxiety in a way. Aza ends up putting herself in the hospital trying to fight her fears and letting her anxiety control her, and in a way, seeing her torment herself helped me not to do it so severely to myself.  Aside from the completely personal connection I have to that large portion of the book, the book also has an incredibly interesting plot. The plot is not one everyone can experience, as it is a mystery that invo...

 "Feed" was mind-boggling and sometimes difficult to understand because of the slang used within the text. It was futuristic, somewhat scary, and most of the people in the story were very unbothered about the kind of control the government had in their literal brains. These are not complaints, though, these are the reasons I loved working with this text. I think students today could find a lot of enjoyment in reading this book, along with some apprehension and curiosity about what this says about our own society's future. I think that the students would actually enjoy trying to sipher the slang used within the text. In fact, one benefit of the text is that the students can learn to use context clues to translate the language used within the text. It would likely be comical to them, especially if the teacher told them that sometimes their slang is that difficult for us to understand. Furthermore, this book will have students seriously thinking about the reality of technolo...

 This book will always be one that is powerful, especially in the society that we live in today. Living in a world where there is civil unrest far more often than there should be, this book can help shed light on some of the issues that plague our country. In this book, Starr sees her friend get shot after they are pulled over. He does not have a weapon, and he does do what the officer asks reluctantly. Still, he is shot mercilessly and unjustly at the hands of a police officer. This book can really illuminate the fact that sometimes our society finds itself valuing human life less and less. There is not an excuse for the way that the scene is handled in the book, and in the rest of the story we see a community fighting for justice, and for the rights of their fellow people. Rights are not something that should be fought for, but something that is innately given to everyone. It is in our constitution, and yet there are people in our country fighting for their human rights every sin...

 One of the neatest things about the Utopians is that they are always happy and completely rational. They work because work is required, and they have plenty of time to do other things. I think that although we as the reader knows this society cannot logically ever exist, it still has a good message in the way things should be run. I think that students should know that their lives are not their jobs, and that there is more to them than what they do for a living. "Utopia" is undoubtedly a difficult work, but it may help students to understand that they can be happy in life regardless of the amount of money they make. We want students to do jobs that make decent money, but more than that we want students to choose jobs that align with their passions, and we want them to think bigger than just what job they want to have one day.       One thing that plagues some specific societies today is the “live to work” mindset. People find their identities in their careers. ...

 💥💥💥👎👎👎💥💥💥 This time, I will be looking at the parts of the story that does not have anything to do with the plot. One issue I had with this book was the flow. There were many times whenever the author seemed to pause the story to point out the diversity in a character. It was told, rather than incorporated into the plot, and I think this is a large mistake. This takes some of the value of the character’s diversity away from them because their identification is forced. We teach diverse literature, not because we want to check off a list, but because diverse literature has value and brings new viewpoints to the table. The same should be said about diverse characters. The story seemed to attempt to check off a diversity checklist for the characters in the story, but this actually negatively affected the flow and value of the story.  Another problem I found with this story that is related to the problem above is that the author tried to force the reader to relate. There ...