Literature classes are a requirement we all have to endure from elementary school up until we reach the college level. For some like me, literature classes have also been easier due to my love of reading. For others, it can be a source of dread to read about people that are long gone and don’t matter. But, literature classes are very much worth the investment and what a student gets out of each class is perhaps worth the struggle of completing a novel.
This semester, I decided to take two literature classes: 20th Century American Novel and Young Adult Literature. The first was to fulfill a minor requirement, while the second one was an elective. This combination led to 23 books that I was required to read, and often resulted in me having to read several at once. Now as the semester finally draws to a close, I am relieved that I will no longer have to mix Hemingway with John Green. However, as the semester closes, I did get quite a bit out of both courses. And that somehow made the entire stressful semester entirely worth it.
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Through my literature classes this semester, I was exposed to books that I probably wouldn’t have ever read otherwise. This included Thomas Pynchon’s “The Crying of Lot 49,” and James Dashner’s “The Maze Runner.” In one of my classes, we had a keyword project, where you had to pick a genre of books to focus on and study from. I picked fantasy, because I hadn’t had much experience reading that genre and had wanted to dip my toe in further into it.
Getting exposure to these novels not only shaped me into a well-rounded reader, but also gave me the chance to explore new books that I now enjoy and want to read more of. After the semester ends, I plan to read more books in those areas. And, I thank my literature classes for giving me that interest.
I have also gained patience through these classes. Some of the books I’ve read were very challenging, and there were several times that I wanted to throw my hands up into the air and give up.
However, I didn’t. Through the urging of my professors, I stuck with the novel to the very end. The end result was that I not only felt proud of myself for being able to stick with a challenging novel that may or may not be of interest to me, but it taught me to slow down while reading.
By slowing down while reading, it alerted me to key moments that I would have missed if I sped through the novel. Slowing down also taught me to truly appreciate the beautiful language that the author had in their novels. Reading at a faster pace for the sake of getting the reading done would have caused me to miss it, and therefore miss the significance of the metaphor.
While these classes were both challenging for me, in the end I believe it was all worth it. Therefore, I encourage every college student who has the time to take a literature class. Literature does this crazy thing of taking someone out of their current realm of reality and puts them into a world where the unexpected could happen. Therefore, it’s worth the investment of time.
While I’ll never be an English major, I will always appreciate the art of literature. As I probably will never take another class in literature again, I still will open a novel. I also won’t be afraid to open a novel that’s different than my interest or one that’s challenging. Why? Because I know that I will get a lot out of it.
And, I owe that all to my lit classes.
