The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of School Assigned Texts

            School assigned texts can be both a blessing and a curse; perhaps both. Sometimes, one has to read a novel or poem that he or she may or may not like, and then write countless essays regarding that topic. If one enjoys the work of literature, great! But if one doesn’t, sucks to be you.

            One example of both a blessing and a curse was Heart of Darkness. While I loathe that novel with a fiery, burning, intense passion, low and behold, I wrote about that novel on my AP exam. Bullocks. But hey, the question basically stated “write about Heart of Darkness” as the task, and therefore, I was forced to write about my least favorite novel in the world, for a grade that I had been working for all year. Just my luck. Looking back though, I was glad (resentfully) that I was forced into reading that novel. Let’s be clear: the problem that I have with that book is not the subject matter (although it is quite depressing) but the fact that it made absolutely no sense. I felt as if I was being made to read hieroglyphics. Let me explain. I feel as if Joseph Conrad thought in Polish while writing the novel (he is Polish), but then he wrote it in English because let’s face it; if he wanted his book to become popular and sell well, it had to be in English. That’s what confused me about the novel. It wasn’t the story line, no that concept was quite simple to understand, but rather the way in which he structures the sentences and the ideas. But on the bright side, at least sparknotes video exists.

            One of my favorite school assigned text was Hamlet in tenth grade English class. I don’t know why, but I understand that play.  Whenever someone asks me to describe Hamlet to them, I just tell them that Hamlet is a philosophy student home on spring break and discovers that his father is dead, his mother married his uncle, and therefore, his uncle is on the throne. And oh yeah, his girlfriend is psychotic and he kills her father, whoops. Hamlet is a thinker, not a fighter, and he struggles with his ideals and morals throughout the course of the play. By the end, Hamlet has done a complete 180 and is a completely different person, but the person that he needed to become. But Shakespeare, the genius that he is (please note my sarcasm), decides to end this shit storm by just killing off them all. Fantastic ending. It’s like Macbeth being defeated because Macduff was born by C-section. Really? I think Shakespeare was grasping for straws at the end. But I digress.  Anyways, I understand Hamlet and I enjoyed reading that play.

            School assigned texts can often be good or bad, or in the case of Heart of Darkness, both. I think it just comes down to personal preference and whether or not you can grasp the concept. And if you don’t understand, just remember, sparknotes has videos.