Stephanie Cruz-Guzman

Professor Hussey

Composition II and Literature

November 24th, 2024

Reflection of Literature

Before the start of the semester I was a bit apprehensive considering the first time I took

an English class last fall semester. As I’m nearing the end of the semester, this essay allows me

to look back at the work I’ve done that made me look at different types of literature through a

different lens. Throughout the past few months, I have looked at poems, short stories, and plays

and looked at the different elements like themes, settings, and even the different point of views

of different characters that made these pieces of literature complete. Not only has the different

readings influenced my view on literature before, but also being able to see what others get out

of the literature as well through the discussion boards.

Throughout the different assignments in the semester, a few stood out to me than

impacted the way I thought about literature and even applied to my life. One of the most

significant is “A Doll’s House Act III” by Henrik Ibsen. The second essay assigned was to

choose from both plays and expand on the thoughts from Discussion Board #8. I had already felt

strongly about the prompt questions but I then had to look back throughout the play to defend my

stance. I found important quotations that helped my argument but also applied to my life, it not

only made me think about the character’s realization about what to do with their own life but

also mine as well. Towards the end of Act III, Nora says “I believe that, before all else, I’m a
human being, no less than you—or anyway, I ought to try to become one.” (Ibsen 925).

Individuality applies to everyone but for this to be said especially by a woman in this time period

was out of the social norm. Everyone goes through a period of trying to find who they are and to

be able to see the character development from Nora who had no individuality to wanting to go

out in the world to find who she is was exceptional.

Besides people reading different types of literature for a class, I believe people read and

write stories, plays, and poems to share their ideas with a broader audience. The audience can

then interpret it in their own way, whatever they got out of the literature in the first place. An

example of this being shown throughout the semester is within the discussion boards. With being

able to see how my classmate’s interpreted the literature and what they got out of it as well.

Before the first essay there was a discussion board asking what was the theme of the short story

“Wildwood” by Junot Diaz. On Discussion Board #5, Thomas Brennan said “The story leads me

to think about the effects of generational trauma and how individuals affected by it

unconsciously participate in self-destructive cycles.” After reading the story I hadn’t even

thought of that before reading what Thomas thought the theme of the story was. I even applied it

to my own essay shortly after and it even made a bigger connection to the shorter who also

experience dealing with generational trauma. Some may be able to get a meaning out of it or

might just enjoy the work that other people are able to create and put out in the world. Speaking

for myself, I can say I got back into reading more literature outside of the class than I enjoyed

simply for the story that the author was able to tell. I didn’t find any meaning outside of it like

others will, but regardless I enjoyed reading the literature.

Literature is defined as written work that is considered to be an art form like novels,

plays, and poems. I believe it’s valuable to read and study because it allows our thinking of not
only ourselves but others to go deeper. We’re also thinking more into the characters, settings,

and what’s going on at the time to find deeper meaning to it. It’s not just thinking that it’s just

another piece of writing, but seeing in different ways how it’s valuable to the rest of the world

and maybe also yourself. While you can find deeper meanings into literature, it can also just be a

piece of work that you find enjoyable. In this last area of class and the last few poems assigned in

this class, we read the meaning for poetry in the first place and how it should be received. The

poems interpret how poems should be valued and read, whether it be from meanings, to feeling a

sense of community like “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, or to just

keeping an open mind like “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins. Throughout the course we

analyze each piece of literature for assignments and discussion boards, but it’s nice to be

reminded to just appreciate the work within itself.

From the beginning of the semester, I honestly was worried about what I was going to do

in this class considering how badly I failed my first English exam exactly a year prior last fall

semester. It’s now the end of the semester and I see how much my skills have grown in this class

navigating the different areas of the class when it comes to analyzing literature, adding on to the

ideas/thoughts of my classmate’s, to ultimately being able to defend my ideas with evidence

while completing the three essays. How I thought about literature changed over the course of the

semester because of the literature that was being read, being able to analyze all of the parts of the

work, and seeing what others also got out of it while providing evidence to back up their ideas.

Ultimately, these last few weeks and this final essay allowed me to reflect on how far I’ve come

in this course, comparing how I felt at first to being able to be proud of the work I’ve submitted.
 Work Cited

Ibsen, Henrik. “A Doll’s House”. The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J.

Mays, portable 14th ed., W.W. Norton, 2023, pp.880-929.

Brennas, Thomas. “Discussion #5:Theme” Blackboard. CT State Norwalk.

ctccs.blackboard.com. September 17, 2024.