Easing into a new semester with new classes and a new curriculum can be hard, and the English class readings will often hit you like a ton of bricks. Pages upon pages of thick prose or overwrought dialogue end up terrorizing students nightly. However, sometimes, reading homework is an escape; an assignment freeing from the harsh confines of math problem sets or scientific proofs. Interviewees from each grade shared their opinions on the English curriculum and their current English reads.
Generally, ninth graders are hit the hardest by the establishment of a new, more rigorous English curriculum. While summer reading is meant to prepare students for this inception, both by introducing new, more challenging kinds of literature into students’ reading palette, and allowing students to dip their toes into the themes that will be approached, students often search out easier summer reading books to read, or just skip summer reading altogether. Doing so can harshen the integration into the curriculum, as one will have less experience with the themes tackled and the writing styles that are being taught. Freshmen Houston Evans shared his feelings about the curriculum and how he’s adjusted to the class so far, first commenting on the summer reading:
“I read Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang … Many of the [summer reading books] were about discovering oneself.”
This trend of self-discovery again appears in the short stories that are read for the first semester of the freshman curriculum. The ninth grade curriculum is different from later years because it starts with a series of short stories, each which delve into different styles of writing and uses of rhetoric. Evans outlines that he didn’t particularly enjoy the short stories, apart from his favorite story, Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid, a monologue style short piece that outlines the pressures placed on women in modern society, however he did praise the choice to start with short stories
“I would say it's definitely good to start with the slow integration of short stories, because that can get you up to speed on the themes of the class quickly,” shares Evans, but he further added that he hopes to start working on a longer text, once his writing skills have been honed. Nevertheless, he does seem to convey that he appreciates the slower integration into the curriculum, even if he doesn’t appreciate the reads themselves, because it provides a more forgiving alternative to what could be a harsh first semester of ninth grade. While an easy start for the ninth graders seems to help them overall, this slow start isn’t replicated in tenth grade.
Unlike freshman year, sophomores start with a particularly dense text, the notoriously divisive Frankenstein. Regarded for its empathetic depiction of the story’s “villain” and its pensive meditations on the nature of man’s relationship with the idea of “God,” being referred to by many as a “Gothic Horror Paradise Lost,” Frankenstein breeds division among the sophomore class because of its meandering prose and epic length, loved by some, hated by many. Sophomore Kaelyn Chen, a student who falls into the latter category in her stance on Frankenstein, shares her thoughts.
“I personally find Frankenstein quite boring because the plot moves very slowly.” This statement is possibly the perfect summary of the central flaw of the novel, as Frankenstein suffers from its greatest strength: the mysterious pacing and narrative framing. The epic soars at many points, as it dives deeply into different character’s perspectives, most famously the perspective of the monster. The monster’s eloquent innocence endears him to the reader and completely tears down the previously established notions of absolute good and evil, but his empathetic chapters are tragically short lived. Outside of the monster’s story, Frankenstein often flounders more than it flies, especially in many of the Victor Frankenstein chapters. While those chapters may offer interesting ruminations on the nature of mortality, the focus seems to meander rather than move the plot forward. Furthermore, as Chen points out, the curriculum tries to balance the reading of Frankenstein with other activities, leading to a disproportionate amount of time spent on the book.
“I wish there were a wider range of texts to focus on.” Chen goes on to claim, highlighting the possible mistake of starting the year with Frankenstein, which provides a sharp contrast to the Junior year curriculum.
While Sophomores start with the layered, yet ridiculously dense and often cumbersome Frankenstein, Junior year starts with a much faster paced text, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. While on the surface a pulpy and stylized anti-romance, The Great Gatsby found a place in most junior year school curriculums following WWII and is now recognized and lauded for its intoxicating reflections on obsession and the exorbitant wealth of the 1920’s.
“I enjoyed it. We finished it for homework yesterday. It's a very interesting book about power dynamics and drama … a fascinating book about how scary power can be.” Junior Ben Robinson shared his thoughts on The Great Gatsby, as it has been one of his favorite English books so far. He praised it for its easily analyzable prose, claiming “it’s not Shakespeare” which he seemed to imply was a compliment. The Great Gatsby is famous for its prose, which contains poignant yet vivacious depictions of the epic and debaucherous highs of New York during the 1920’s.
When asked how Robinson liked it in comparison to the other novels he read, he added:
“I actually enjoyed it more because it's less of a sad book. For the past two years, I've been reading Frankenstein and Macbeth and like Antigone. All these are like tragic tragedies.” While The Great Gatsby may not be the first novel to come to mind when one thinks of “happy books,” the aesthetic and language does have a more hopeful element to it, especially when compared to Greek tragedies such as Antigone. Even the final note of the book looks to the future optimistically, despite the tragic events that had just occurred. This does provide sharp contrast to Frankenstein, because while The Great Gatsby is still somewhat a tragedy, its romantic language and poignant themes could not be more different than the Gothic Paradise Lost of Sophomore year.
The class too seems to replicate this hope, as Robinson also commented on the difficulty of the class, claiming that it was “It's slightly more [difficult] just because in Junior year they expect you to know how to do Harkness discussions and know how to start an article paragraph. So it's not like building a base and then going from it, it's directly into writing an Essay.” He continued on to comment on how fun the class was because it spent so little time meandering, not unlike the semester courses of senior year.
Senior year differs significantly from all previous English classes, as instead of having solely the two options of either Honors English or standard English, there are a plethora of semester courses that dive deeply into specific topics or styles within literature, ranging from “Family Drama on Stage” to “The Art of the Essay”. For this article, Alex Strofs, a student from the most popular course, “Gothic Literature”, agreed to share his thoughts.
“I greatly love The Castle of Otranto … because it's the start of Gothic literature.”
Gothic literature is a genre defined by morbid narratives, hopeless themes, and pitch dark aesthetics, which is every ingredient for an effervescent class. Strofs shared his love for the gothic themes present in The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, particularly that of the Uncanny Valley. Uncanny Valley is the term used to describe something that looks almost human, but is in fact not human, asserting a sense of uneasiness in whoever comes across this uncanny valley. Prime examples of the Uncanny Valley are the faces in the 2004 film, The Polar Express, the 2019 film, Cats, and as Strofs outlines, the helmet in The Castle of Otranto.
Strofs went on to praise the next book they read, The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:
“I also read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which I loved. I really liked the theme of the dangers of scientific inquiry.” Once again highlighting hopelessness in literature, Strofs brought up the tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a story about the advancement of science and how it can bring out the worst in people, further serving as an allegory for addiction.
When prompted regarding his overall thoughts on “Gothic Literature”, Strofs praised the curriculum and teacher Dr. Karen Hiles for its balanced and intriguing engagement with the material, but he somewhat contradicted himself in saying that the material itself was not good.
“I thought [The Castle of Otranto] was kind of bad. I didn't love it, but I like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” However, despite liking Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, upon comparing it to the books he read during his time in English 3 Honors, he established that he preferred the books read in that class to the books of Gothic Literature.
Overall, despite mixed feelings about the Autumn Reads themselves, most people seem to laude the curriculum for its masterful integration of texts. This bodes well for the progression of Stevenson English courses, and is a sign of great teachers across the board. Yet, one key piece is missing, which is the inclusion of a Southern Gothic Literature semester course in which students delve into works such as The Sound and the Fury, In Cold Blood, and Beloved. Yet, one can only dream.
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