Personal Essay: My Love And Passion For English Literature

The debate of what literature is or how it should be defined is an ongoing battle even today. Many have expressed that literature should be well-written, worthy of study, and also stand the test of time, despite most of this criteria catering towards classical literature written by wealthy white men, while others believe this is all too subjective to work fairly. I personally believe that literature is at least three of the following: An embodiment of the human experience, a reflection of cultural perspective, and the relationship between author and reader.

Passions drive people, and the townspeople in “The Lottery” and Paul in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” are no different. Each of the members of the unnamed town has a strong passion for tradition. The original black box used for the lottery is described as being, “lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born” (Jackson 251). This sentence gives the reader an understanding that the lottery is an ancient tradition that has become an integral part of the town’s lifestyle. Such a tradition can only be carried on for this length of time if the people are passionate about preserving the tradition. Paul had a passion to be wealthy as a way to prove to his mother that he was lucky. From a young age, he saw that his family always wanted more money to support a better lifestyle, yet

Ever since I was in elementary school, I have had a strong fascination with literature. Overtime, I had a plethora of books lining my bookcases and barely had room for any more. Reading was a necessity to me and it still is to me today. I eat, sleep, and breath literature because I feel like it’s essential to my academic career. Literature does many wonderful things like, teach me about life lessons, transport me to a new world that I have only dreamed about going to, and discover new vocabulary.

My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.

English in its entirety can be simply described as author, biologist and physician, Lewis Thomas had once said, “We pass the word around; we ponder how the case is put by different people, we read the poetry; we meditate over the literature; we play the music; we change our minds; we reach an understanding. Society evolves this way, not by shouting each other down, but by the unique capacity of unique, individual human beings to comprehend each other” (Thomas 120). The impact literature can bring onto others is simply amazing and is a gift that should be shared with everyone. This spring semester has quickly broadened my perspective. Being that this is my freshman year in college I prodded around ideas of what majors I had interests in. I

In my AP English Literature class the class was assigned to research and create a presentation on an existential philosopher. We were given two class days and the weekend to finish the project however our group was met with a huge challenge. The first day of the project we were missing one student who had been in our group. This did not seem like a severe problem, because there were four other people, including me, in the group. My partners however did not understand the assignment as proficiently as I did and they also did not care much about it. This is why the project turned into a procrastination challenge. I’ve always been interested in philosophy so this project seemed fairly simple. I took the weekend to learn more about my assigned

Literature has always been a window into life during a particular time frame. Fiction and nonfiction alike will give its readers a glimpse of the lives of those of varying social statuses, along with the culture and politics of the time. This remains true regardless of the period in which a work was written. From the Romantic era to the 20th Century, literature has been skilled at providing understanding of others and their lives. For example, from the Romantic period works like the two William Wordsworth poems I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and The World is Too Much with Us, along with A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns. The Victorian era has its own share of works that reflect the time when it was written, including Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus

Gerald Graff suggests that passion for English has both innocent and corrupt components (26). Some people have always had a natural gravitation towards English. They have an inherent fondness for reading; a love that they discover during their early childhood. For other people, they experience a large indifference and apathy towards books for much of their lives. For many, books are unappealing until they find a novel to which they personally connect. The discussion and debate, the analyzation of the author’s message and motive are what beckons to these types of people. My individual appreciation of English is a combination of the two sides, innocent and corrupt. This narrative explores how my personal experiences with English have solidified

Which of the following American poets helped establish "jazz poetry"? a) Robert Frost b) Rita Dove c) Maya Angelou d) Langston Hughes

Our cohort is nearing the end of its secondary education and therefore it is important that we reflect on the ways in which it has shaped our attitudes values and beliefs. For example, over the past five years we have read, analysed and evaluated various literary works (novels, plays, films etc) in our English studies. These texts express various ideologies, some of which have left a lasting impression on our attitudes, values and beliefs. In addition to this, English literary texts have provided us with historical knowledge aswell as a thorough understanding of the role that aesthetic devices play in engaging readers and expressing ideas. Three texts that have influenced me as an

There are English majors everywhere and many of us know the struggles and successes of it. We take pride in our large vocabularies, our extensive book collections, and that we might have read the "Harry Potter" series at least 10 times. As with all majors in their respective areas of study, we are passionate about ours. Whether you enjoy poetry or plays, novels or short stories, digitized books or getting them from the shelf, this list represents 15 things that we can all relate to.

Throughout high school my passion were the greats, Shakespeare, Poe, Hemingway, Dickens, Twain, and the list goes on. In particular Shakespeare picked my brain constantly. His works have survived and remain triumphant even today. Though teachings were shallow I still remained engulfed by his works. Which lead me to dive into English on the banks of the Red Cedar.

will face in college and in the workplace. He states that reading classic literature expands and strengthens students’ vocabulary skills and helps them to gain cultural literacy by recognising the relevancy of quotes. Many experts believe that classic literature has the text complexity that is described in and needed to accomplish the goals of the Common Core Standards.

I majored in English in the Humanities and Social Sciences college at Rowan University. At the same time, I studied a number of courses in the discipline of secondary education. I enjoyed studying teaching but early in my undergraduate career I determined that teaching English at the high school level was not my desired life path. Rather, teaching English Literature as a professor was my life's purpose. As an undergraduate, I have taken a deluge of class varying from children's literature to Toni Morrison studies in an attempt to further understand literature. Concentrating on the ways in which modern literature apprehends the American experiences within the written word. At the point of graduation, I accomplished a

Anglo-Saxon period, from 5th century to 1066, became the “ancestor” of our modern literature. There is a big difference from then and now including our language and culture.