Tagore

Yesterday for class we had to read Tagore's "Punishment".  This was basically a story about a man who was upset when his wife didn't have dinner ready for him so he killed her.  This story did not really do much for me.  In class it was discussed that possibly the piece was supposed to be comedic, but I didn't see it. At all.  For me, it was a rather boring read and all around pointless.  There was a brief amount of background introducing the setting and the characters then all of a sudden a man is stabbing a woman in the head.  Not much content here or much point.  Stories such as this one are reasons why I do not really get much literary satisfaction from non-Western literature.  As always we had a fair amount of solid class discussion on the work which was enlightening, but it did not change my feelings for the story.

Amichai

Yesterday for class we had to read Amichai.  Of the pieces that we had to read, I had taken the most liking to "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children".  Amichai is a mostly religious writer which is something I don't really take a strong liking to ever.  Once again, I discovered that this class goes by unbelievably fast and it seems as though we can never have enough discussion.  I greatly enjoyed discussing the meaning of "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children".  The idea that as people get older they receive less assistance and protection from God is an idea that I have never put much thought into but it is a very interesting idea.  The concept is very true to me.  It is clear that as people get older they are more likely to lose favor in the eyes of God while they know more and they sin more.

Neruda

Yesterday for class we had to read Pablo Neruda.  This class will be my first in depth experience studying non-Western writers and as of now I am not exactly sure how I feel about it.  Western literature has always been what I had chosen to read and I don't love going outside of my comfort zone when it comes to literary works.  The Neruda writings did not really do much for me when I read them.  I did not find much value or meaning to them and I was not looking forward to the class discussion about them.  Again, I found that this class was able to produce great discussion about works that I did not enjoy reading.  Dr. Reed was able to get us all to see more within the reading than I had initially seen.  Going through the works line by line and asking the right questions in class really helped me to develop a deeper understanding of the works I did not really appreciate during the first reading.

Day One

Today was the first day of the English majors/minors only class that I am taking.  Going into the course I wasn't exactly sure how to feel about it.  I was excited for it because I have always found my academic strengths to be in English, but at the same time, I was very nervous for the course because I am not an English major and I knew it would be a heavy work load.  I am pleasantly surprised upon the conclusion of my first day of class that I fell in love with the class.  Even though it has only been one day, I can already tell that things are looking good for this term.  The other two classes that I sat through today were painfully boring and seemed to go on and on forever.  With this class, two hours and ten minutes did not even seem like enough time.  The time went by so quickly and I felt as though we could continue class discussion for a much longer time.  I look forward to what is still to come.