The first day of school went pretty well, sort of how you’d expect, with every class dispensing a syllabus and most giving some sort of get-to-know-you homework. English class was no exception. I have to write a short little thing about myself, mostly just fill in the blank. I might put it up in a next post, but I’m not so sure about that. English class seems like it will be good (my English teacher maintains a class site and keeps it updated, so she’s at least quite organized), more than half of the books that we’re reading I know to be excellent. It looks like we’re reading Death of a Salesman, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well as The Great Gatsby and maybe other good things.

The Human Connection

In class today, one concept we covered was that of a human connection in writing. Books become classics because they have some univeral appeal, they say something about the human condition in a novel way. For instance, To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that exposes prejudice in all of us, using both horribly racist characters like Bob Ewell to show how much damage prejudice can do, and using Scout’s far more innocent prejudices to expose how we are all subject to them. This idea of a human connection suggests that one way to look at a book is to try and find that connection that an author trying to build with their story.