Does it Have What it Takes?

“A work of literary merit.” A literary work must go through a long and thought out process in order to be place in this exclusive category. In order to be selected, a group of experts in the field of English Literature has to recognize it as authentic and one of a kind. Classics like, Hamlet, The Great Gatsby, and Frankenstein are all works the have been put in this category. Sometimes I ask myself “Why Black Boy and not Divergent?” I never understood why I was not seeing any books that I liked not make the cut. So I spent a long time thinking and I came realize that books do in fact  have to fit a certain criteria.

In my opinion, it is imperative that a work of literary merit not only has to contain a vast and unique usage of literary elements, but it should also contain a very important underlying message. After reading works like Invisible Man and discussing the nature of the work as a whole, I understood that not every book is at the same level of authenticity as Invisible Man.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is considered a work of literary merit by experts, and after reading the work, I agree! This novel has a vast array of literary elements that are excellently used throughout the book such as, foreshadowing, imagery, and symbolism. This novel is set in the 1930’s and discusses a topic that many works tackle: racism. The novel surrounds two siblings, Scout and Jem Finch who live with their father, Atticus. Atticus is a lawyer who takes on a case involving a man named Tom Robinson; a black man who is accused of raping a white woman. Robinson himself is a symbolizes a mockingbird which symbolizes innocence. Despite the fact that Robinson was innocent, he was found guilty of the accused crime. Atticus explains that it is a sin to kill something that is innocent, like if someone was to kill a mockingbird.

All in all, the novel contains a collage of hidden messages splattered throughout the whole text, but the biggest lesson I pulled from it is to never judge a person like you understand them when you have not been in their shoes. In my opinion, this book was definitely a great read; I grasped the lessons that I needed to and I actually enjoyed this work of literary merit. Was this a step into enjoying to read again? I think yes!

The 500-Page Drag

Hello! I am julenejenson903 I am 17 years old  and my life is consumed with school work, and my least favorite assignment for a while was reading. When I was younger, I loved reading and everything that came with it; escaping into another world and leaving behind the harsh world we live in. Some of my favorites book series were the Junie B. Jones and the Magic Treehouse series. I liked to think of myself as Junie B. Jones, to the point my mother even called me “Junie B.” I was someone who even read whole books in a day. I took pride in my reading, my parents praised me, and others loathed me. When I reached middle school, the work did become more intense but I still enjoyed what I read. I was starting to read a little less, but my appreciation for literature remained high. 

When I entered high school, the work became a lot more difficult and there was a lot more on my plate. For that reason, I  started to become the person that read because they had to. With the school work, clubs, and volunteer work that I had to juggle, it was really hard for me to read for pleasure anymore. And school drove my burning passion to slowly extinguish. I was no longer reading because I thought the books were good, I was reading because I had assignments that needed to be completed.

In the past year, I began to realize my wrong ways. I began to think about how hard some of these authors work to put their works together. The person that I became is not who I want to be, I want to learn to love books again. I hope that we can work together to make teenagers love reading again. I know that I am not perfect and I still have a long way to go, so let’s take this first step together.