This class was recommended to me by one of my closest friends at Pitt, and I must say the materials and our resulting discussions taught me more than I could have imagined. This class reinvigorated my love of reading and helped me expand the ways that I thought about literature as a whole. Our discussions were always dynamic and assisted in deepening our analysis and understanding of the texts we focused on.That being said, I do have some thoughts that I would like to reflect on, and pose questions that I’ve struggled with throughout the semester.
I think analyzing literary material that is different from your own experiences is always a challenge. Trying to place yourself in a characters’ point of view when you do not directly relate can often feel uncomfortable, and even feel wrong at times. This is something I definitely struggled with in this course as we made our way through the reading list.
This led me to pose the following questions:
1.How do our own experiences affect how we interpret literature?
2.How do our identities affect how we connect with characters?
3.How do we evaluate a character’s decisions objectively?
I don’t think as a reader, our experiences need to perfectly mirror a character’s experiences for us to connect with the material. I think analyzing texts about complex and diverse character backgrounds is a perfect learning opportunity. For example, I would not know much about Native American reservations without reading If I Ever Get Out of Here. Nor would I know anything about the plight of women (particularly young women) in the 18th century without learning about it from Charlotte Temple.
I also think personal identities can affect how deeply we connect with characters and the body of work as a whole. This can come in the form of religious beliefs, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other aspect that an individual deems as central to their identity. Although we as readers of course do not need to be of a certain identity to sympathize with characters, I do think that influences our perception of a text.
This leads me to my final point of reflection; judging a character’s actions in an objective and fair way is often challenging. Of course, there are degrees to this and there are many examples throughout the semester of clearly morally “right” or clearly morally “wrong” actions by characters. Lydia March’s homophobic behavior and psychological torture of queer students in The Miseducation of Cameron Post is obviously vile and evil coming from a grown woman. Montraville’s seducing of young Charlotte Temple is disgusting (not to mention illegal, in modern times). The bullying Lewis Blake endured in If I Ever Get Out of Here was a horrific example of unchecked authority within school systems and communities in general.
However, like every part of life, there is some grey area. For example, when Cameron’s fellow swim team mates harassed her and Lindsey in the locker room it was clear they were being homophobic. These girls were probably around 14-16 years old, and likely learned this homophobic behavior from their parents. Their actions were still wrong, but they may eventually reflect and grow out of the way they were raised. I compare this scene to Lydia March’s actions, as I think the age difference and severity of actions leads me to believe the teenage swimmers acted as more forgivable than the torment Lydia brought to God’s Promise.
Overall, this course broadened the way I thought about adolescent experiences. I got to learn a significant amount from character’s whose backgrounds were drastically different from my own. Representing Adolescence reminded me of literature being a powerful tool in expanding our individual perspectives.
Representing Adolescence @ Pitt 