After finishing the first reading of The American Dream, we discussed it, annotated it, and then discussed it again. Through this process, I was finally able to (somewhat) understand the play. Talking to my classmates helped me to begin to see the symbolism and metaphors in the play and then discussing it a second time further aided me. I really like the format of a first read, discussion, second read with annotations, and discussion again. I feel like each time I process the work, I'm gaining more from the text (which I assume is the purpose). Our class also discussed and agree on the theme of the play: Consumerism is corrupting American societal structure and values. Once we decided this, more of the play began to make sense.
In this time, we also read and annotated How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster and Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by Michael Harvey. The class talked about how the concepts in HTRLLAP apply to recent literature or pop culture. I didn't necessarily like reading his book, but being able to relate Foster's literary theories to books and movies I'm familiar with was immensely helpful. Next, we wrote a practice Open Prompt essay and then used Nuts and Bolts to revise it. One of the biggest things I took away from Nuts and Bolts was the idea of a "pompous voice". According to Harvey, younger and less experienced writers tend to overcompensate for their lack of knowledge by adding big words that convolute the writing. I know I have been guilty of this more than once, so reading the book helped me to be more aware of the words I'm using.
We also began doing a warm up exercise everyday at the beginning of class. Each one involves a specific literary element (diction, syntax, imagery, etc.) and has an excerpt from a text and questions that go along with it. These have helped me be able to recognize a certain element and apply it to my own writing. Also in class, Ms. Holmes went over the specifics of the multiple choice and writing sections of the AP exam. In the past, multiple choice has been one of my strengths in standardized testing, but from what I've seen, the AP Lit MC seems more difficult. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week, we watched Death of a Salesman with Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich. I haven't had the chance to read or see Death of a Salesman before, so I was happy we got to watch it. I enjoyed the movie and I'm excited to delve into the play this week.
Alex, good post, you seem to have covered all the bases and made good use of objective analysis to the books we read. If you were considering changing anything, I would really only say that you could add more about how the plays and discussions affected you (more subjective material) and your opinions on the books and plays themselves and the messages they convey. Also, your thesis for The American Dream is a bit basic- consumerism is corrupting American societal structures and values? Like what? What is the uncorrupted version of American society? Were we ever a “pure” society? How do we measure the corruption of people and our communities by consumerism? I think your thesis would be well benefited by a deeper look into the meaning behind the words. In all, great post though.
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ReplyDeleteYou did a good job covering all of the points, but I think that Ms. Holmes wants more personal reflection on how exactly the course material affected you, as Cal pointed out. We were all in class with you, so you don't really need to summarize the weeks as much as you did. I like how you put in the theme that we decided on in our class into your post, but some more details on the metaphors and symbolism might be beneficial to your post. I disagree with Cal's thought that your theme is too basic, as a theme has to incorporate all of the elements of the play, and your theme accomplishes that goal effectively.
ReplyDeleteThe second paragraph on Nuts and Bolts is done very well, and I can't think of anything that needs to be added to it. Good job!
Alex,
ReplyDeleteGood job on your blog post, I think you did a nice job of covering the topics we have learned thus far in class. I found the multiple discussions over The American Dream to be very beneficial as well. I also found the “pompous voice” section of The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing to be effective in improving my writing. In this section of your post you include good examples of how annotating this piece benefited you personally but you did not do this will discussing the other items we learned. Your post would benefit from adding more personal reflections. This is the only thing I would clarify in your blog post. Besides adding more personally reflection/detail to your blog post, you did a nice job overall.