Summer Reading

1. Out of the three books, I enjoyed Brave New World by Aldous Huxley the most. The dystopian society functioned as both a mirror and critic of society. However, unlike 1984 which depicts more of a communist country, Huxley demonstrated how developed countries that can enjoy leisure time may someday forget about who they are because they are too absorbed in pleasure. The character John who was born outside of the World State is educated by Shakespeare and explores his consciousness with the plant peyote, which is the custom of the 'savages'. When he is brought to the World State he cannot live in a world of just comfort without poetry, danger, freedom, goodness, and sin. All these things are thought provoking and give the human choices to make. The theme, message, controversial content, and style of this book all intrigues me and is one of my favorites for sure.

2. I least enjoyed 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' because it wasn't very thought provoking. It followed a story about a woman looking for love. I got that she was happiest with Tea Cake even if they were poor and had a lot of unfortunate events happen, but after finishing I didn't see the point of reading it really for an English class. The style of writing also bugged me because it was hard to read the Southern African American accent on paper. This is the kind of book that I would prefer to watch as a movie because the message doesn't need to be conveyed through text.

3. If I were to write an essay about 'The Stranger' by Albert Camus which I wouldn't mind at all because I also enjoyed this book very much I would focus on the theme of absurdism. The main character (forgot his name) sees life just as a list of events, none which are very meaningful to him. He shows this in his simple direct narration. When he shoots the Arab and faces the justice system, all his meaningless events are illuminated and analyzed. Suddenly, every thoughtless action he has made determines whether he lives or not. I think it is important, because Camus is provoking the reader to think about these matters about life and meaning.