"They say money money is the root of all evil,

I see money as the root of all people"

- Joey Bada$$

Love

The third and final favorite lecture of mine was our poetry lecture that was based on love and the different types and meanings of love. I have often found myself questioning what love is and love is not something easily explained. After our lecture I felt as if I was not the only one thinking about love the way I did. I enjoyed comparing my perspective to others who are similar in age and I actually had a very comforting feel after this lecture. I was excited to hear that my classmates had similar meanings and I just felt that this lecture was something that I never really had an opportunity to talk about in depth like we did in class. Love is something I always struggled with weather it was trying to learn the true meaning or trying to understand my feelings and after this lecture I felt as if I finally understood that types of love vary based upon situation and how there are in fact many different kinds. Self love is something very near and dear to me.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Another favorite lecture of mine has to be A Streetcar Named Desire just based on the fact that I really enjoyed the story. Being able to analyze and take such a deep meaning out of the story really made me enjoy all the action and plot twists in the play. I felt as if I never knew what would happen next and there’s nothing I love more than a cliffhanger. I enjoyed hearing everyone’s perspective of the story and being able to expand on my ideas and thoughts on what was meant by the actions in the play. Another thing in learned was male and female roles in society based on time period. Comparing the events in the play to current events was a real eye opener to how society used to view different sexes. The play was jam packed with conflicts Stanley’s quest for dominance as well as all the internal and external conflicts that Stella faced and Blanche’s escape from reality was a lot of action and being able to understand and expand on these ideas with like minded students was quite enjoyable. 

Tragic Heroes

One of my favorite lectures was our Antigone lecture. I have always had a very difficult time understanding reading and analyzing pieces of similar genres. After going into fishbowl and discussing what we thought parts of the text meant and hearing other classmates’ interpretations of the text it made me begin to think alike and look deeper into the reading. This was just an introduction to what we would be learning, for that I would say it is one of my favorites. I enjoyed learning about tragic heroes and how their mistakes lead to their demise but also served a very important purpose in the story and displayed a very strong message. I sometimes look at myself as a tragic hero although maybe not to such an extreme extent as Antigone, but sometimes I feel as if I sacrifice things or myself in certain situations to prove a point or to learn something sometimes intentionally but mostly unintentionally. Tragic heroes was something I had never heard of until this lecture but I am glad it was something I had the opportunity to grasp and learn about. This lecture taught me something that I never completely understood such as sacrifice for the greater good. 

Reflection

Entering this semester, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from English 102. After deeply enjoying my 101 class and relearning how to write formal essays after high school, I wasn't sure what else was left to learn. This semester I learned a great deal of reading and analyzing text. After reading a few stories and discussing in class I realized that there are often times, deeper meanings in the text that go beyond what is just written on the page.

Analyzing text is an important factor in becoming an exceptional writer and reader. Without the skills I learned during this course it is very easy to read a story and be confused or read and interpret a completely different meaning than what the author is trying to portrait. Before this class I depended on spark notes a lot because I had a hard time understanding certain writing pieces. I overlooked the fact that I was not very good at analyzing text and just accepted it but after this course I can confidently read and analyze text as well as add some of these methods to my own writing pieces.

Through Professor Brady's sense of excitement while teaching her lectures, I wondered for a little while why she was so excited for us to read and discuss, but shortly after our first fishbowl I realized that she was taking us, as students on a journey to really decode text and find the meanings behind these stories. It was like a parent teaching their child to ride a bike for the first time. Watching the child needing that parent’s guidance to get the bike moving, to removing those training wheels and almost having to beg the child to come back. It didn't take me much time to start finding that same enjoyment out of reading a bunch if words on a page and then going on to analyze those words and find a deeper meaning in them.