Quarter 2 Reflection Paper

Last quarter, my reading goal was to read Dante’s Inferno and Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. Unfortunately, because of college applications and other things, I never got around to it. So, I have decided that after my high school work is over, in addition to reading those two books, I will read the entire Harry Potter series and read more of Moliere’s works. You can quote me on that.

In reading, my weakness was that I kept falling asleep when I started reading Othello, even though I promised myself I would not do that. Then I had to stand up and walk around while reading in order to stay awake. However, the story became more interesting as it progressed. I learned about the prejudices that people held against others who were different from them. In my opinion, their racism portrayed their fear of the unknown. Sparknotes’ “No Fear Shakespeare” also helped a lot. This means that I have to find a way to read books that seem boring at first because not everything I have to read will be like Tartuffe, my favorite book from this quarter.

First of all, I am completely fascinated with the French. Everything about French screams sophistication, which I love. Secondly, the rhyme scheme in Tartuffe makes the play seem playful, even though it is about something serious. I appreciate Molière’s ability to use humor to expose the evils of society. In the movie “Molière,” Elmire Jourdain says, “unhappiness has comic aspects one should never underestimate.” This quote explains what I believe in, and it symbolizes what Molière is about. I think my enthrallment with the French made me biased towards Tartuffe even before I read it, and then reading the play reminded me again of why I love the French so much.

Previously, I had underestimated the power of prewriting. Somehow, I always found a way to skip the step of outlining or doing a pre-write before beginning my papers. I figured that I would just wing it and something decent will come out of it. What a huge mistake. This quarter, I found out that outlining before I started a paper actually helped me organize my thoughts better, and that by prewriting, I spent less time writing my paper than usual. This surprised me a lot, and it made me realize that if I had discovered that before, it wouldn’t have taken me hours and hours to write Ms. Partridge’s papers last year.

This quarter, I think I accomplished my writing goal from last quarter. My writing is no longer just a summary of the story. I actually manage to get some analysis in, and for that, I am proud of myself. Next quarter, I will hone my analysis skills. I will also find ways to make books seem more interesting so that I wouldn’t fall asleep while reading them. That’s about it.