English Literature Online Class

This was the first online class I have ever taken. I am enrolled in three online classes this semester, and this online literature class has been much better organized than one of my other online classes. I liked how we knew from the syllabus exactly what was expected of us each week and could know what readings to expect. The class at first intimidated me because after reading everyone else’s biographies, everyone else in the class was an English major or education major. I am a nursing major taking this class as a prerequisite for nursing school in Texas. I realized that no matter what your major, anyone can analyze literature, and I think I became better at analyzing the poems and novels the further along class went. This was one of my favorite classes that I looked forward to working on during the week. It was nice not having to read a huge textbook for class, but instead read poetry and novels. I especially liked the discussions held on the online forums from the professor and my classmates. Overall, I enjoyed taking and participating in this English literature class.

Importance of Family and Friends:

I think, one of the greatest lessons the novel, Mrs. Dalloway, teaches is about the importance of people in one’s life. Clarissa realizes at the end of the novel that she wants to stay connected to society to not feel isolated. I believe that interacting with people is healthy in order to build stronger relationships with family and friends. Through these strong relationships, one cannot feel isolated and begin to feel full of life. Although our family and friends can hurt us in unimaginable ways, I believe we are better off having family and friends than none at all. Even when someone else hurts us, these family and friends form our support group to help us get through the hard times. Therefore, the realization of feeling socially connected to one another through our friends and family, proves to an important theme one can learn about in the novel Mrs. Dalloway.

Prufrock's Lesson

Just like in the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, I can learn from Prufrock by realizing that I need to take the advantage of the time given to our team now this season, because it is my last. We lost our third soccer game this season on Friday, September 29. This game I hope will become a turning point in our season bringing our team together to continue to never loose for the rest of the season and win the national championship. The game yesterday was against Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. The first half of the game we played like crap, completely opposite of what we are capable of playing. The second half we played better, then in over time still a little better, but by the second over time, one silly foul led to a free kick, and a goal that should have never been scored. We lost 1-0 and deserved to loose because of our horrible play. The other team cheering after the game as if they won the world cup of soccer was the worst part. It was embarrassing to walk off the field hearing their shouts of victory. Our team held their heads down on the long walk back to the bus. Everyone sat in complete silence for the ride back to the hotel. As a team we thought we could just walk out there and it would be a guarantee win, but hopefully we learned that everything will not be handed to us. We must come together and work hard to have the drive, desire, heart to accomplish our team goal of becoming national champions! We as a team need to take advantage of our time now, unlike Prufrock who didn’t take the advantage of his time.

Great Expectations

I love the title of the book we had to read these past few weeks, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Pip had people expect great things from him and people expect great things from me. I feel no pressure from these people. Most people who expect great things from me are my family, my soccer coach, and my boyfriend. The great things they expect from me are to succeed at my own goals. For instance, my coach expects the best I can do day in and day out. He only wants me to give 100 percent of what I can give that day. My family wants me to succeed at my personal goals of becoming a pediatric nurse. They expect me to go to school, to play soccer the best of my abilities, and to accomplish my personal goals. My boyfriend wants me to accomplish my goals to achieve my own expectations for myself. I would call him my biggest fan right now to help me achieve my expectations. He is my supporter and when I stray from my expectations, he is there to help work things out. My “great expectations” are being accomplished each day with the support of these great people.

Poetry can have meaning even today

My boyfriend and I have endured a long distance relationship, while school is in session during the fall and spring semesters. It has become harder and harder for me to deal with the distance every semester. I have seen this week on a personal level how poetry written years ago can affect my life today. After reading Elizabeth Browning’s poem, I realized that during this week in my life, I am like the woman in the poem. Just this past weekend I brought up to my boyfriend why he doesn’t say “I like you” very often. I even had him read the poem, and he thought it was ironic how this poem came about at this point in our lives. The way she goes about asking for her lover to profess his love for her could definitely seem unappealing to any man. The poem has helped me realize that I don’t want to be like the woman in the poem, by asking my boyfriend in the way she does to tell me that he likes me more. I am more understanding now because of this poem to what my actions can look like to him.

The Child

As I was reading Frankenstein, the story got to me the most when Frankenstein was describing how he learned everything by watching a family. I think this section pulled at my heart so much because I love children and work with children. I am a camp counselor in the summer and have worked with all ages of children. The smaller ones that are six or younger, I can see acting and learning just like Frankenstein did. I can relate and feel sympathy for Frankenstein at this point of his life being like a lost little boy. As I was reading, I just wanted to reach out to the lost little boy Frankenstein to give him a hug to show him some love and compassion that is so important and needed in children’s lives. Maybe this is why I want to go into pediatric nursing, so I can reach out and help hurt children like Frankenstein.

Beauty and Nature

All the readings of the week of Shelley, Coleridge, Byron, and Keats had something to do with nature or beauty. Nature to me is very beautiful. Nature can be beautiful in a complex, spiritual way, in which I think most poets try to make it, or it can be beautiful in a pure simple form with no need for a difficult connotation. I personally like to think of nature as a trouble-free beautiful sight with no hidden meaning. I like to enjoy the simplicity of life when in nature. I enjoy being apart of and one with nature through activities I enjoy, like fishing, camping, taking walks, and just simply being out doors. The most beautiful sight in nature to me is the dark night sky lit up with the stars and the moon shining brightly with the ocean waves calmly gliding across the shoreline reflecting the stars and moon as if they were dancing in the water.