Final Paperr!!

December 15, 2009 jyerkie3

 

Changing Jory’s View of reading??

It was a cool summers evening; the summer between 11^th and 12^th grade of high school. Jory was all alone at her house, waiting for her mom to get home from work. She could smell the corn and hear the loud combine out her window. “What to do to pass time?”, she thought. Then she picked up the book, which her sister had told her, “Once you start reading it, you will never want to put it down and it will make you cry.” “Now,” thought Jory, “a book that makes you cry, and a book that you can’t put down? Get real!” Jory hated to read; she sometimes couldn’t even stand just reading a magazine. She thought it was just boring. She blamed it on school, because she had to read for school, like it was her job. So she thought “Well I don’t have anything else to do, so I will prove my sister wrong.” She picked up the book that her sister recommended and read the title. “My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picolott.” She opened the first page and started reading, in hopes she would prove to her sister that everyone is NOT the same.

What is reading? Everyone has their own definition of it. I remember my mom reading to me, when I was a little girl, until I fell asleep. I remember in every grade level we had to either read a book for English class, or we were read to. But, the big question is, why? Why was reading so important? Did it help us learn better? What was the big reasoning? When I was in middle school we had to read a different chapter book every year, and I hated it. We would read a chapter one night, and then the next day a teacher would pick that chapter apart, until there was nothing left to pick at. How do you call that reading? How do you enjoy a book, when you never really get the opportunity to enjoy it in the first place? Sure, when I was a kid, I loved to read teen magazines, and Cosmo Girl, what teen doesn’t?, but when it came to sitting down and reading a book, I just thought it was boring. I could never get into it. I felt like I was being forced into reading. I solely believe that the reason I felt this way, was because when I was in school, we would be made to read, and when I did, I had to analyze everything, and never really just got to enjoy the reading and think my thoughts to myself. As Birkerts says, ¹“Wisdom has nothing to do with the gathering or organizing of facts – this is basic. Wisdom is seeing through facts…” Reading a book shouldn’t have anything to do with wisdom; reading a book should just be seeing through facts, and reading what you love to read. Reading should be placing your self in your own world, imagining things, dreaming of things, and most of all, just enjoying your self.

When Jory started to read, she could barely hear anything because of the loud combine noise out back. She went upstairs to her bedroom, thinking maybe that would help, and it did. So she started reading. She got through the fifth chapter by the time her mom had gotten home. Jory had realized, her sister was right!! Jory had gotten into the book so much, she did not want to put it down. She continued reading all night, until bedtime. She finished the book in three days. Jory told her sister that she was right, and she should never of doubted her. It was not until that summer before her senior year of high school, that she actually understood reading. Jory did not hate reading. It was certain types of reading she preferred over others.

In chapter one of Birkerts he talks about how he taught an undergraduate college class, and made the assignment of reading the book “The Sleepy Hollow”. To his surprise, none of the kids liked the book; they found it boring. He was puzzled about this surprise, and decided to ask questions about why they didn’t like it; whether it was the language, or the meaning. The kids just stated, “the whole thing”. See, Birkerts doesn’t understand that everyone has their own view/style of reading. Everyone likes to read something different from everyone else. The book “The Sleepy Hollow” is basically “old fashion” for kids in today’s society. We don’t find it interesting. We don’t want to read it. We just can’t relate to it.

That summer Jory learned her definition of reading. It was not just because of a class obligation, but for her to go into her own world, and imagine. Jory thought reading a book meant getting lost in it, with her views of whatever she was reading. Jory learned that she liked to read, but she still did not like to analyze. She felt analyzing everything that you read would take away from the imagination that you experienced. As Birkerts states in Chapter 7, ²“In any case, when we read we bring the life- ultimately our life- to the words.” This statement proved true. When Jory read she put her self in the character’s position. She brought her life to the book. Thus, Jory felt reading is a way to escape everything else, to forget about what is going on outside the reading world. She forgot all about that she was home alone, and tuned out the loud combine noise, and just read. She went into her own world.

After Jory graduated from high school, it was time she moved onto bigger and better things…college. She decided to attend Washington College in Chestertown, Md. Her first semester she took English. When she started taking this class, she was asked to write an essay about what she thought of as reading or writing. She wrote about the time she read the book “My Sister’s Keeper” and how it changed her view of reading. She also wrote about how she still hated when teachers picked apart stories. D,However, during her semester in English class, that would soon change.

Jory read different novels, and hypertext, one being, “Patchwork Girl”. “Patchwork Girl” was based on a story, but she got to analyze it, and make the story up her self. And she actually enjoyed it. Another novel she had to read was Birkets’ “Gutenburg Eligies”. She was again assigned to analyze it and get a deeper look into the reading. Once again, Jory actually enjoyed it. Jory learned that when you analyze text, you can find out so much more to what is behind the text such as the true views that the author is really trying to say.

Jory had experiences that changed her views of reading and writing, and she could have many more. She found out what she liked to read, and how she liked to analyze reading, as well as many other things. This all was Jory’s experience; anyone could have an experience that could change their viewing of reading. Everyone has their own views of reading, and you have to respect that because not everyone is the same.

Entry Filed under: Portfolio

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to comments via RSS Feed