English 112L Reflection Essay

The work that most surprised me that I would never have read outside of class is The Cask of Amontillado. I am an extremely avid reader of non-fiction material; I do not get joy in reading material that has no practical or realistic application inside my life. I do not want to distract myself from reality with stories and thereby comes my avoidance of fiction in general. I would not have found this short story initially appealing because from the title it is a broadly titled story in which I don’t know what is contained within its contents. However, after reading I found that I enjoyed the perspective of a biased narrator and how it is presented to an audience. It didn’t so much matter what was happening in the story but the adventure of being inside the characters mind and their interaction with their external environment gave a more interactive element that I did no think I would enjoy. Since I was mostly reading this story for a class assignment, I find it extremely unlikely that this story is going to have a massive impact on what new things I read in the future. I find it much more beneficial to explore material on the real world and the way things are. It is much more flavorful for me when creating my own theories and hypotheses when I can back cite where my thinking and extrapolations came from.

I found it extremely difficult to interpret the overall purpose of “The Appointment in Samarra”. I understood that initially that there was an underlying tone of death having a personification to him. However, because death had it’s own “motive” and initiative in the story than just a person going to die it was confusing on how death was traveling throughout the story. It was confusing as well to follow which individual was of interest within the story even though there was a limited amount of characters. I understand now that the theme of the story is that - no matter how hard you try, you cannot escape death. The whole horse adventure and different cities to go to added what I see as unnecessary detail to what could be said in fewer words. The biggest reasons it was hard to interpret the meaning behind the text was simply due to the fact that each character was not clearly speaking with quotation marks. With no quotation marks to follow who was saying what I found that I was jumping between who was saying what. The strategy that I used to understand what was happening is to break down who was saying what within the story. By making a mini-timeline of events within my head I was able to figure out what was being said within the story.

“A Rose for Emily” was the story where the artistic structure most contributed to my experience of the story. By exploring regionalism, strict tone, and this use of chronology jumping the experience of my reading was amplified. I noticed that when watching visual mediums of entertainment, I enjoy watching series that involve the use of time travel. This is because it jumps back and forth between sections of time while also creating new experiences for the characters. In “A Rose for Emily” the author doesn’t put the story into chronological order. William Faulkner purposely jumps around on what is happening and leaves out crucial details to keep the reader intrigued and wanting to read more. By doing this, this lead my reading of the short story to be an extremely enjoyable experience because it was an unexpected mystery that could be figured out but not revealed until the end. The strict tone within the story along with regionalism added a unique setting that I could get involved with and explore the intricacies of the story. This includes the dress and acting of the time that would otherwise be different in other time periods and locations. By having this strict setting and keeping a specific language structure I did not break out of the story that the author was trying to tell. Through this story, I believe I am better able to notice specific choices that are made by the author to add narrative and effect to the story. By being able to notice specific elements I might find that I can enjoy certain stories or that there might be tales that break my expectations of the mold.

The work that I would most recommend for people to read is “The Story of an Hour”. The reason I would want someone else to read it is to give perspective on what a marriage in the past looked like. I am anti-marriage not because I am against happiness, quite the opposite. Almost all people go into a relationship fueled by emotion, hormones, and a plethora of other factors they cannot control. It is extremely difficult both legally and emotionally to get out of such situations. The story shows that extreme caution should be made with those decisions. In essence, the tale is that for the limitation of freedom due to the constrains of society. With those limitations have been somewhat due to the progress of social justice there are still other factors to be aware of now that may not be clearly seen in one’s life. The standard I am using to see this story as important is to show that certain decisions may limit an individuals freedom. I hope that someone would gain the ability to self-reflect in their own life on what specific factors are holding them back and to keep pushing forward. Death was seen as the only way for the main character to get out of her situation. There are too many opportunities now a days for that to be the only options. Being able to move forward with unrelenting progression is what I want other people to inspire and achieve in themselves.

I have grown personally from these broad range of text due to fact that I have read material that I otherwise would have no touched. Bein gable to see different writing styles has given me a better perspective on how different people deploy the presentation of ideas. With these nonfiction tales, I get to see how implicitly the theme is told rather than explicitly. Even with these given text in class the preference in what I want to read won’t change much. I want utility and purpose in the writing’s that I seek out. However, even with this preference in mind I can still enjoy and digest the tales that I have read. Since these stories are to entertain and tell a message they have a different purpose than the nonfiction material that I seek out. I see myself in a year or two remembering that there is more to literature than what I am used to. The different ways in which authors express themselves have drastic change on how material is created. While these text may not be particularly meaningful in the long-term I can still enjoy them for what they set out to be. For example, “Harrison Bergeron” was not meant to be a mind blowing tale on strict egalitarianism. The story was a simple warning on a specific ideology taken to an extreme - somewhat similar to Animal Farm or Nineteen Eighty-Four. Most of what I read supported the beliefs or showed a slightly different perspective to challenged what I believed. These stories have influenced me by seeing my moral, political, or philosophical self-reflection can fit into that specific scenario. While I find it unlikely to find myself reading similar stories in the future, I did have fun with the switch up in the literature that I read.