Response to Course Material Three

Another month, another response to course material. We've done a lot since the last one! It's kind of hard for me to remember everything, actually, so I'm glad Ms. Holmes keeps track of everything on her blog. 

I really enjoyed the "shark tank" discussions that we had as we finished up Death of a Salesman. I like that they give everyone a chance to talk, especially some of the people who don't speak up as much. They were definitely frustrating, though! Sometimes I had a point that I really wanted to make, but I was on the outside of the circle and by the time I got inside the discussion had gone somewhere completely different. It's definitely a cool way of discussing, though. I remember being a little bit worried about it initially - we had done something similar in American Lit and then it just seemed kind of awkward, and the discussions weren't all that great. What a contrast to this year! I think a big part of it is that the type of people who take AP Lit are much more interested in discussing than in any other lit class I've taken, which is very cool.

I think as this year goes on I'm going to find myself being challenged a lot more than I initially expected. There was a lot of stuff I felt like I struggled with in the past month. Death of a Salesman, for example. I think I picked up on some of the meaning in it, but there was a lot that didn't even occur to me until we were discussing it. And I found writing the theme statement to be a lot harder than it was with The American Dream. Even after we finished it, I felt like something was missing, or there was something that I didn't quite understand, but I still can't put my finger on what it was. 

I also continue to really struggle with poetry. We responded to an AP prompt for the poem The Century Quilt and wow, I messed that one up. There was so much that I misinterpreted, and there was a lot that I didn't pick up until Ms. Holmes went over it the next day. For example, the whole thing about the tension between the two families? Totally missed it. And while I understood the shifts in time and could tell when everything was happening, I struggled with what it all meant. I don't know how I'm going to do when the AP test comes around, but I'm kind of worried. 

I have been enjoying the "mood and atmosphere" exercises. I think it's fun to try to describe the different pictures in a stylized way, and it definitely gives me a new appreciation for what writers do. It's hard to find the right words for everything! Capturing the mood of an image in one word is challenging, and it seems to lead to a lot of arguments in our class, but I think we usually end up with the right idea. Defending our descriptions is something that I find really valuable, because it helps me pinpoint all the elements of DIDLS that we end up using, consciously or not. 

And now, Hamlet! I've both read it and seen it before, so it's really interesting to compare those times to reading it now, in class. The first time I read it was a few years ago, and I definitely missed a lot of important stuff. I'm glad that Ms. Holmes is pointing out things that we should take note of, and explaining some of the double meanings that the characters' words have. For example, the whole thing with Hamlet calling Polonius a pimp all the time? I never would have understood that on my own. I also don't think I would have caught on to Ophelia's motivations for suicide. I remember being really confused the first time I read it (although that was quite some time ago so a lot of the play confused me) and thinking that she was actually just completely mad because of her father's death.  I'm looking forward to our discussions later on, but especially Ophelia's character. I think the different ways she can be interpreted are really interesting, so I want to know what everyone else thinks. It should be a good discussion!