I have to force myself to do anything related to my English class.
How can I do this? :C
edit: The part that makes me want to shoot myself tonight: the teacher implied that "The Metamorphosis" is not too hard, and can be read in 'only a few hours'.
She's right.
Less that twenty minutes for the initial read-through. A good hour or two to go back through the thing scanning for symbolism. A look at Kafka's own history with his family is also a good idea.
These items aside, teachers do tend to overestimate...
...mostly what pisses me off is that she thinks it's a book, and unless I'm tripping nuts, it's a short story, goddammit. I do not trust this woman to judge my usage of language. I really don't.
This is what she wants from the essay, verbatim (I apologize, but reading this made me short-circuit for a few minutes -- what the hell?):
a) understanding of the author's purpose i. e., to Entertain? Inform? Persuade?
b) statements of your understanding of the author's purpose but try not using "I". You're the expert now, so try to write objectively.
c) how well you think that the purpose has been achieved
d) evidence to support your judgment
e) a very brief summary (not more than one paragraph) Do not make this your intro.
f) at least one statement by a critic-- maybe even a general statement by a critic defining the genre.
g) the essay must have at least 3 direct quotes and 2 paraphrases.
I just want to cry. Goddammit, I suffered through AP English and THIS is what I get? THIS? There's no room for symbolism, or analyzing how his own history changed the story.
Beating my head against the desk would be more educational. This is just like revisiting the ninth grade except from my laptop.
Yes, this. For some reason, people find these things hard. Hence why I'm holding all As this semester, while all of my classmates are getting lower grades, namely in the C range.
Remember how I told you about the person in my honors English class this semester who wasn't aware that you could put rhetorical questions into an essay? Exactly. The world has far fewer hotshots in it than high school leads us to believe.