Lit 110-04: A Final Thought

When I walked into class that first day I was surprised by what took place, the teacher spending the entire class period on attendance, memorizing names with faces. This was not what I had expected. I expected to walk into a room full of book snobs and freshman and was, for the most part, wrong and happily so. The theme of our class was retellings; every story is a retelling of another and there are no original stories. This claim, at first, both bothered and confused me. Is it possible that there are no original stories? is everything really rooted in something else, something that came before, something all to similar or even exactly the same? What I found throughout the course of the semester turned my world upside down. Everywhere I looked I saw bits and pieces of other stories and in some places I even found the exact same story just played out by different characters in different places. The reading list was also far more enjoyable than I had anticipated. I had expected to be bored to death but was pleasantly surprised by works which seemed to engulf me and take me into their world. The Brothers Karamazov, The Ones That Walked Away from Omelas, Antigone, The Cathedral, and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? just to name a few. Overall I have had a positive experience and believe that I have learned some very valuable lessons which I will carry with me through the rest of my days. I would like to thank everyone for an interesting/entertaining semester and wish you all well. PEACE, I'm out!