Did You Achieve Your Goal Today?
After visiting and revisiting many assignments and blog posts over the course of the year, it is clear to me that there are countless lessons that I have learned, and many goals that I have accomplished. Along with these lessons and goals, we have worked on a plethora of assignments, some more significant than others. However, from novels to plays, summaries to articles, and even fiction to non-fiction, we have covered a lot of topics, and all have aided my knowledge and critical thinking skills.
As the English 131 class began in mid-August, I had mixed feelings. As a student, I always hated English, it was never my best subject, and was far from my favorite. To me, English had all the intentions to stay the same way it always was. I had always been a sub-par writer, an average reader, and a decent student. However, the setting for this class was completely different than anything I had experienced before; I was now a college student and the class had a new potential that I had never seen before.
Much like a lot of college students, my year started off by making goals: become a better writer, improve comprehension skills, and become a better student. The first goal to tackle was by far my biggest, to become a better writer. Becoming a better writer doesn’t happen overnight and it sure isn’t going to take a couple minutes. I knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy task as college can make or break a student, and the ones that break seem to disappear in the crowds. About halfway through the semester, we started reading The Devil in the White City, and had to write an analysis on a quote early in the story. Erik Larsen wrote about “It was so easy to disappear,” (12) and it became clear to me I would disappear in the class with below average writing skills. This assignment, to me, was one of the most important and significant assignments we had all year as it opened my eyes to become proactive in my journey to improve my writing. If I wasn’t going to put in the work, my grade would suffer and I could fail miserably. To become a better writer, one has to write! All semester in English 131, we have written snail mail, journal entries, summaries, and analyses. Every single one of these assignments have turned me into a better writer than when I first walked through the door three months ago and I can confidently say that; goal one, check. Next on my goal list was to improve my comprehension skills. Through reading novels like, The Devil in the White City and The Underground Railroad, along with plays like, Our Town and Creature, or even articles such as Blogs vs. Term Papers, my reading comprehension skills were greatly improved. All of these readings required analyses at the end, aiding both my writing and comprehension skills. My favorite work of the year was the analysis on Our Town, on the quote in Donald Margulies foreword that said, “It’s a Wonderful Life owes a great deal to Our Town” (xi). This quote required me to comprehend even deeper than it seemed as we had to compare two stories and their themes together. We were making the transition from book to film and this element was one that isn’t used much nowadays. The different versions of readings and connecting the analysis to what we read strengthened my comprehension skills greater than I ever expected; goal two, check. Now, only one goal remained, become a better student. In high school, I never read or wrote. In college, I knew things would have to change or it would be a major disaster. English 131 flipped the script on all of these bad habits. I had to read, or my writing would suffer and I had to write or my grade would suffer. Needless to say, I have become a much better student since August; goal three, check.
With all three of my goals checked, there is no doubt in my mind that English 131 has been a successful course. From increasing my writing and comprehension skills to becoming a better student, the class that I hated turned out to be decent. Reading novels, articles, summaries, and analyses transformed me into a new English student, and I am glad I took this course. I leave you all with one last question, did you achieve your goal today?
Works Cited
Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City. Vintage, 2004.
Margulies, Donald. Foreword. Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Harper Perennial, 2003, pp. xi-xx.
Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. 1938. Harper Perennial, 2003.
Capra, Frank, director. It’s a Wonderful Life. RKO, 1946.
Annotated Bibliography
Junod, Tom. The Falling Man. Esquire, Sept. 2003.
“The Falling Man,” by Tom Junod, was one of my favorite pieces that we read as a class. The article takes the point of view of jumping from the twin towers on the horrific day in September of 2001 and changes the way the common man views it. For most, they saw this as a way to escape the torture of the flames and destruction, but others saw a selfish act of suicide. However, when you read “The Falling Man,” it makes it seem as if those who jumped were graceful and were finding peace in no more pain.
Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City. Vintage, 2004.
The Devil in the White City is a nonfiction novel that spans the years surrounding the building of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as The World’s Columbian Exposition, and the storyline of serial killer H.H. Holmes and his psychotic scheme around the fair. When Holmes transforms a hotel into a murder labyrinth, innocent people become missing and eyebrows become raised. In the hustle and bustle of the city, Holmes was able to disguise and mask the murders, but before long, the truth would come out. In this nonfiction story, we get a true idea of how easy it is to disappear in any busy city and how easily a serial killer can be hidden close to us.
Maslin, Janet. “Add a Serial Killer to 1893 Chicago’s Opulent Overkill.” Review of The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson, The New York Times. 10 Feb. 2003, nytimes.com, Accessed 11 Oct. 2017.
In this review of The Devil in the White City, Janet Maslin tells readers about Larson’s extensive research and detail on the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and serial killer H.H. Holmes. Maslin argues that though Larson’s extensive use of descriptive and accurate facts give this story a real-life vibe. By using these facts and specific detail, The Devil in the White City became a very real story, one we could mistake as a non-fiction novel.
Schreck, Heidi. Creature. Samuel French, 2011.
In the early 1400’s, Creature is a play focused on the main character, Margery Kempe, and her encounters with a supernatural force of the devil. This turns out to be a major struggle for Margery and her family as this is something very rare and serious. The devil seems to be apparent in this play and the question of who to trust becomes very real.
Twenge, Jean. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”. The Atlantic, September. 2017.
Jean Twenge’s article discusses the different problems and issues that occur from the usage and over-usage of smartphones. In the article, Twenge explores the idea that too much screen time is leading teens to feel isolated and experience more depressive tendencies as well as, sleep deprivation. By using facts and case studies, Twenge brings the problem to real life and a focus we all should realize.
Whitehead, Colson. The Underground Railroad. Doubleday, 2016.
Set in the Southern United States during the slavery era, The Underground Railroad follows the story of a young slave girl named Cora and her journey to hopeful, and eventual freedom. After facing countless trials and tribulations, Cora does not give up, and will not, until she is free. Life is awful for these slaves, and following this protagonist point-of-view gives us an indication of how tough their lives were.
Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. 1938. Harper Perennial, 2003.
Our Town is a three-act play that tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover’s Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens. In this short play, Wilder uses different characters, and even a character in the form of the stage manager, to give us an in-depth look at what is going on. Each act takes us through the different stages of life, and we follow Emily Webb to see this progression. The small, American town is the perfect example of small-town life, and through hardships and successes, we see how small-town life is portrayed.
Larson introduces this subtle word on page twelve where he writes, “It was so easy to disappear, so easy to deny knowledge, so very easy in the smoke and din to mask that something dark had taken root. This was Chicago, on the eve of the greatest fair in history.” Throughout the story, Larson reveals the very mysterious theme as we read along with the point of view of Herman Mudgett, or as we know him, the serial killer H.H. Holmes. This point of view gives us insight to Holmes’ psychotic plot during the Chicago World’s Fair. By constructing a murderous labyrinth disguised as a new hotel, and by having attractive looks with a very charming personality, Holmes lured his victims in and they were to never be seen again. With everything going on in Chicago at the time, Holmes had the perfect cover to carry out the cunning terror.
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