All Things To Their End!!

English 102 was a class that focused on introducing students to a wide variety of stories in three different genres short stories, poems and plays. English was never one of my strong subjects because I was never really good at reading a piece of literature and understanding all the allusions or symbolism that was presented in the play. What I realized in this class that is important to read some ones work and ask yourself what can I learn from this, what is this story trying to tell me and why did they author write this. I feel that the point of English is to learn how to communicate with people, to not take things as they are but dig for the hidden information because that is where the really meaning lies.   

All the pieces of literature that we went through in the semester changed my perspective on moral issues, decision making, and the consequences that come from the choices we make. The play Everyman really demonstrated that it doesn’t matter how many people are in your life or how much money you have but the only thing that really counts in life are the good deeds that you do. Of course, this something that all people are aware of but it really impacted me when I read it in the play. My thoughts changed about men dominating over women in the 1800s because reading the stories “The Yellow Wallpaper”, “A Doll’s House” and “A Rose For Emily” the men never expressed dominance it to hurt the women that was all they knew and that to them was a way of showing their love.

The poem that I felt the most disconnected was “The Flea” I just don’t understand why John Donne picked a flea to represent his love for his lover. Even reading the poem three or four times didn’t help me to understand it any better. The poem that I liked the most was “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath it really moved me to the point where I almost felt her angry and frustration. The power the poem had because it was so sad and Plath doesn’t hold back or try to make her feelings less than what they were it really made me feel for her because the way she wrote it, the words really grab the reader’s attention. All the other poems and stories were nice and I enjoyed them but they didn’t really influence me or make an impact like “The Flea” did where I just couldn’t get it or like “Daddy” where the intensity made me really want to understand what was going on.

The story that I felt was important in the message that it conveyed was The Tempest; I don’t really like to read Shakespeare’s play because it is very hard for me to understand Old English. But, I really did like the one of the themes that expressed the differences between nature and civilization and how complicated things can be because people like to lead their own lives no matter what the cost. The message was important because it really made me realize that it isn’t just a modern idea that people don’t connect themselves with nature but it was also a fact in the beginning of conquering new worlds. This idea makes me question if people could ever live with nature and respect it or are we just made as a species to feel like we rule the lands.