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LITR 4326 Early American Literature Model Assignments |
Final Exam Essays 2016 Sample answers
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Kimberly Loza
My Learning Experience
In my learning experience throughout this semester, I have learned so much from
this class. I have come across some familiar forms of literature, like the
Creation Story and the story of La Malinche from my past educational experience.
However, I have been introduced to and read so many new forms of literature that
I would not have typically come across in my educational career. Due this
course, it has expanded my educational experience and has changed my own
knowledge in so many different ways. Through my learning experience within this
course, I feel that it has made me fall even more in love with literature
because it has opened me up into the many forms of what is to be considered
literature. I know that when it comes to teaching my own students one day that I
will help them experience these forms of literature as well.
Like I said before, I have already came into knowing about certain texts such
as, the Declaration of Independence and the story of Creation through places
like school and church. However, I had never really looked into or thought
deeper about them as being forms of literature. This course has changed my
aspect of that matter because these forms of literature of the basis into how we
have become the America that we are today. Especially when looking at our
discussion on the Declaration of Independence, this document is the basis of the
creation of our nation and in was created during a time of Enlightenment, which
our Founding Fathers decided that it was our right to be our own nation. Just
considering that without this document, this form of early literature, this
simple idea; we would possibly not be our own nation. It is our history and we
would not be the country that we have come to be without it. In a way you can
say that it is our countries origin story.
On the matter of how my particular learning experience when it comes to matters
that I am familiar with, such as the Declaration of Independence can be seen as
an origin story or possible an evolution of North American culture. This
document brought on the birth of our nation and without it we would be lost. At
this point we had transformed from a reformed nation to a nation that focus more
on reason and in turn became enlightened on how we should manage our rights.
This enlightenment brought on ideas that focused more on right and reason rather
than morals. We did not lose our morals, but they had become not as much of a
focus as they had once been. The Declaration of Independence brought this into
effect and is what started the creation of our nation. You can say that this
form of literature is in a way our North American creation story and it is
something that plays a big part into our culture today because it is the history
of how our nation came to be.
I will say that there have been some terms and ideas that I have not been
familiar with. When looking back at my midterm, I really focused on the style of
the Baroque. I considered the Baroque style to be quite fascinating to me not
just in literature, but in the other numerous forms that we have seen, such as
architecture and in art. However, I came across another quite fascinating form
that I was very much familiar with, which was the Gothic style. I have always
been intrigued by the dark castle and forests, as well as mysterious labyrinths.
I was able to see these ideas come into view when reading Edgar Huntly, through
the constant theme of darkness, which is what the Gothic is all about. We
especially see this in chapter 2 when Edgar goes for a walk and follows Clithero
into the maze. This one moment has so many aspects of the Gothic within it.
Firstly, we get the evil doppelganger with Clithero in contrast to Edgar. Next,
we get the dark and mysterious maze, which is a constant symbol to be present in
other forms of the Gothic. Even though we get these other symbols of the Gothic
through the use of symbols like darkness, woods, graves and corpse. Clithero is
this constant symbol that is always present. He is a dark contrast to Edgar and
can be connected into the idea of what evil actually is in terms of the Gothic.
However, this is not the only Gothic form that we get to experience. We also get
to see the Gothic in forms of poetry, which is something that I had been used to
seeing in poets like Poe. In The Indian Burying Ground, we get the
similar symbols of the Gothic, such as the midnight moon, shade that may mean
ghosts and forest that can coincide with dark woods. Even though this poem is
not as straight-forward with the Gothic symbols as Edgar Huntly. We still get
the essence of the Gothic due to we are reading about an Indian Burying Ground
that is a place where the dead are buried and their ghostly essence may still be
a dark wandering presence.
In my learning experience, I have learned so much and I feel that these forms of
literature that we have learned about will stay with me. This course has brought
back some familiar forms of literature, but has also introduced me into some
forms that I had not been as knowledgeable with. I feel that this course has
allowed me to expand on what is indeed considered literature and how their era
as well as style is what swayed how they are to be represented. I believe that
due to this course and through my learning experience that it has prepared me to
become a better teacher. This love of literature that I have I would say has
grown because I do have a better understanding of what can be viewed as
literature and how it has influenced our culture today.
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