Overview of the Semester

I would have to say that my favorite piece of literature that we ready this semester was Dante's inferno.  Mainly because I have read it before and it was a lot easier to understand, and the imagery made it easy to follow along.  Everything was separated out into different circles and pouches which made it so much easier to follow along.

My least favorite piece of literature would have to be King Lear.  I have never been good at interpreting and understanding Shakespeare.  Each night of reading the play I would have to go on No Fear Shakespeare and read the play in modern language, and then I would go back and read the actually play written by Shakespeare himself.

I think the purpose of literature is to expand our mind, and open it up to new thoughts, ideas, belief systems, and culture.  It has allowed me to vastly expand my knowledge of the subject, and helped me in interpreting many of the pieces of literature that we have read this semester.  It was interesting to read literature from a variety of cultures all the way from Japanese to European.  Some of them were more difficult to understand than others, but in the end it gave me a better idea and perspective on the values and beliefs of other cultures.

I really wish that we could have read the Odyssey as it has always been one of my favorite stories to read, mainly because of the number of crazy gods with different personalities and powers.  I am somewhat disappointed we did not have the opportunity to read it this year.