Personal Reflection

This semester has been extraordinarily helpful to me when it comes to the progression of my writing and speaking. For most of my life, I have struggled when it came to clearly organizing my writing. Professor Mignano-Brady provided us with outlines for our papers which really helped me to visualize what an "A" paper looks like. Writing structure is by far the biggest thing that has changed for me. The second biggest change to my writing was developing the ability to make topics flow into each other. I used to always start a topic and then abruptly stop and change to a different topic. I feel that this class really had an effect on my ability to speak in front of other human beings. I was always a very shy person, and honestly the beginning of this semester wasn't any different. This class gave me more confidence in myself and helped me to become comfortable instead of fearful when speaking to others. I have always considered myself to be an introvert but now I am developing some extroverted characteristics.

This is actually the second time that I have taken EGL 102. I took this class a few years ago at Stony Brook University, but my professor was very boring and monotonous. At the time, I viewed literature as an irritant and brushed off any ideas of reading or writing. Professor Mignano-Brady's personality really changed my mind about literature. To see such a passionate love for writing and literature has been truly wonderful. I have gained a whole new respect for literature and actually started to read books for fun. The thing that I liked most about this class was the constant praise and criticism from our professor. She has helped me to distinguish between poor and strong writing and communication skills.

I will take many different ideas and skills from this class. Our lectures on egalitarianism really opened my eyes to some of the problems that humans are facing in the world today. In the past, I had an ignorant mentality, if its not my problem then why should I care? Now I have grown as a scholar and am able to truly sympathize with those that are suffering. This class has also opened my eyes to how humans really act. We make mistakes and we learn from them. We suffer inside and bottle away our emotions. Some of us go with the flow, while others stand up and fight for what we believe in. I like to view myself as the latter. Five years from now I feel that I will still look back to this class for references, I have always been a strong thinker and I feel that my knowledge will only improve over time. I truly believe that knowledge is power and I hope to expand my horizons in the future. I feel that my writing will definitely improve as I enter the workforce. Various situations will arise and will help me to improve upon my writing skills even further. This class has really helped me to expand my mind and my capabilities, and for that I will be forever grateful.

Class Lecture 3: Hemingway

Personally, I am a big fan of history. The lecture about the life of Earnest Hemingway was particularly interesting to me. A few years ago, I took a trip to Key West, Florida and actually got to take a tour of the home that Hemingway lived in for a while. This helped me to feel a personal connection to the lecture. We learned of some of Hemingway's personal characteristics as well. He was an adventurous explorer that traveled all over the world to find inspiration for his writing. Apparently, he was also a womanizer with a fairly serious drinking problem. Hemingway's drinking led to serious depression and eventually he took his own life. The story that we focused on from Hemingway was called "Hills like White Elephants". This was about a woman having a simple conversation with her husband in regards to keeping her baby. The husband seemed to support the idea of getting rid of the child, yet the wife wanted to raise it. This highlighted the fact that even in a marriage between two best friends, there can be disagreements. It also focused on the silencing of women. Personally, I feel that nobody should be silenced. Everybody has a right to express themselves, and taking away that right is rather dehumanizing if you ask me,

Class Lecture 2: Interpreter of Maladies

On this day, we specifically discussed some themes of "Interpretor of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri. This was one of my favorite short stories that we read this semester. We were asked to find certain characteristics of both Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das. In fishbowl, we agreed that Mr. Kapasi was regretful, degraded, and humble. We also found that Mrs. Das was rather selfish, regretful, and withdrawn. Some of the themes from this story were failure, unworthiness, and apathy. I was really able to connect to this lecture because it showed that human beings all make mistakes and regret them later on in life. I feel that anybody can understand how Mr. Kapasi or Mrs. Das felt in the story, and even share specific commonalities with each character. The definition of "malady" is a deeply rooted concern or disease. Everybody has demons within them, and sometimes just talking about them can make a person feel much better, just as Mrs. Das was seeking comfort in sharing her maladies with Mr. Kapasi.

Class Lecture 1: Egalitarianism

This lesson specifically tied into "The Yellow Wallpaper", "White Woman of Color", and "Children of the Sea". We started the lecture with and excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." (Thomas Jefferson) We generally defined egalitarianism as a belief in human equality. This lecture was interesting because it really tied into some social issues into the world today. There are movements in today's world that are out to support equality for women and for African Americans. We tied egalitarianism into "The Yellow Wallpaper" by referring to John's silencing and entrapment of his wife. We also learned that egalitarianism can be found in four different social institutions: Government, Family, Religion, and Education. If it were not for egalitarian human beings in various aspects of culture, the world could potentially be a lot more unethical and unequal than it is today.