Hello writing world! I am back at it again as my AP Literature
class has just concluded reading the gothic novel Wuthering Heights, by
Emily Brontë. I have read Jane Austin before and immensely enjoyed her novel, Pride
and Prejudice. However, other than that I have had no exposure to gothic
literature. I was a little nervous when my teacher first passed out the novel,
but ended up being pleasantly surprised. I loved the book and could not seem to
keep my nose out of it. I was fascinated by the origin of Gothic literature in
the first place and thus was able to catch the aspects of the type of
literature that were staring me in the face while I was reading.
My teacher had us do some researching
before we started reading and I think that really helped me because I was not
going in blind. Learning about the supernatural events that are explained by
natural events and those that are not were the most fascinating facts for me. Wuthering
Heights had several starling turns in the story in which I would pause and
ask myself which type of supernatural this was. During the book I began to
notice that when Catherine would have her spells they could be explained by
natural events such as her starving herself. While the ghost that Lockwood
believes is present in the beginning of the novel, can be explained just by the
idea of supernatural occurrences.
For
those of you who have not had the ultimate pleasure of encountering this novel I
highly recommend that you take the time and open yourself to other types of
literature such as gothic. Although some of the language and discussion in general
was difficult to understand time from time it was certainly not impossible. However,
there is one character that drove all of us in my class crazy, Joseph. Joseph
was the hardest to understand as we all would swear it truly was not any kind
of English. I feel like at first I tried to ignore what he was saying as I didn’t
feel it was relevant to what was going on. However, I know some would argue
that it was indeed important to understand. Throughout this novel, it takes
time and is important to make sure you understand all the events that are going
on and ultimately what the point of the story was.
My
AP literature teacher refers to it as the SO WHAT, why did Brontë spend her
time writing this story line, what was she trying to say to her readers? After
concluding the novel, I realized that she was trying to portray the tragedy of history
repeating previous generation’s mistakes over and over again. Catherine and
Heathcliff are famous lovers who are never together until death because of the
different social graces they are raised in. Then the story portrays their
children being forced to make the same mistakes until the end of the story
where love conquers all (sorry for the spoiler alert everyone). However, I truly
believe this was the message that was trying to be conveyed. Everyone until
next time, make sure to keep writing and reading!
I really like this post! You did a good job describing the novel and your process in which you read it. I love how in the end, you talked about the "so what" because that's the question that forces us as readers to actually pay attention to the novel. I have no complaints besides maybe add pictures to make the blog most appealing. Also maybe talk about your essay about the novel. Other than that good job.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, writing wise you only have a few awkward sentences. Not only that, but if you want to be more creative then connect the theme of the novel to your own life experience so the blogs you created won't seem
ReplyDeleteone dimensional.
I really enjoyed reading your post, I love how you easily you can express yourself without trying to overdo anything. Through your post, one can easily notice your improvements! Most importantly the ones reading your blog get to know you as a writer through the work of literature you appreciate and what you do towards the ones you struggle a bit with and hopefully that lead them to take your recommendations when it comes to books and different ways to deal with the struggles they encounter. That's what good writers are about, encouraging others to try new works of literature. However, I wish you went more in depth about Joseph's character, I did found him intriguing but to be honest I did not look much into him or what his purpose within the novel was, (many times, I've tried to figure his lines out but nothing came up, so I gave up on him haha). You talked about reading Pride and Prejudice, I wished you talk a little bit more about, how did it either connect to Wuthering Heights or how different they are from another. Try to continue your ideas and your feelings about the content. Can't wait for your future posts :)
ReplyDelete(Jane Austen) but I did enjoy reading this post because I agree with basically everything that you said. I definitely think that you should've tied in Austen's book more because that would've been a great discussion! It would've been interactive for the readers as well, as they can make their own conclusions and assumptions. Other than that though, I see a real improvement from previous posts! That is what matters most. overall, the grammar was okay and structure was pretty good as well, keep writing!
ReplyDeleteI like how you strayed from the traditional, and actually talked about how "Wuthering Heights" is a Gothic novel, and explained the different aspects of a Gothic novel (supernatural). I also really like the fact that you talked about Joseph because to tell you the truth, every time his character came up, I wanted to throw the book against the wall and then burn it. However, unlike you I did not take the time to read or understand his character, I skipped over him (oh well). Your blog posts are always great, and I love how you always connect it to outside sources. Good job!!
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