Growing Up With Literature

It is time for me to sit down and read all the materials I have collected from the library and internet. As I read about the author, Kate Chopin, I pity her for having born at a time when women are not given recognition and right to write as they wish. Women are oppressed and considered inferior than men in her time. When she published her novel “The Awakening” in 1899, her novels received unfavourable critics and in some cities was banned from library shelves. Even Chopin herself was cut by friends and refused membership in a local fine arts club. We could imagine how sad and depress she felt at that time.

It is not easy when a woman tries to come out of the social bondage on them. I admire Kate Chopin for her courage for writing boldly about the freedom of women.

“The Awakening” explores feminine consciousness. It is about a married woman, Edna, her self-assertion stifled in a conventional marriage, is awakened to the sensuous and erotic life. She rejects her socially prescribed role as a wife and mother but involved herself in painting and extra-marital affair. After I have read the novel, I feel that though what Edna did in her time is against the social stigma, but today it is acceptable.

As I have decided my text for research paper, I go to the library to find more information about the author, Kate Chopin. There is a section in the library where we can find a lot of information about literature but we can’t borrow the books. So I have to photostate the necessary stuff I want. I spend almost three hours there just for looking the books on the biography of Kate Chopin and feminism. As the novel we bought from Puan Juridah will be used for open-book test, we can’t do any annotation in it and I have to photostate the whole book so that I can write my notes and highlight some important points I found.

It is a relief after we have completed our position paper. However, there is another paper awaits us. We have to do a research paper under the supervision of different lecturers. Three persons are assigned to discuss their research paper with one lecturer. I am glad to be supervised by Puan Juridah. She has taught us almost every semester and I know what she wants from us and what interests her the most.

Choosing text is the first step I need to work on for my research paper. This time, I will choose a novel. There are a few reasons I choose the novel. In this semester, we are studying five novels. They are “Great Expectation” by Charles Dickens, “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen, “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte and “A Room With A View” by E.M. Forster. I feel that if I do my research paper on one of the novels, I can know in details its content and analysis and at the same time it will help me in my final examination. At least I can study with ease for the examination. As the first two novels have already been discussed in class and were used for the mid-term test. I decide to choose my text from the other three texts. “The Awakening” is the thinnest book from the other three, so I decide to work on it for my research paper. I hope it will benefit me a lot.

Today is my defense day for my position paper. I have to present my position in relation to the text I have selected. Yesterday, some of my friends have already presented their position paper. I found that my friend’s transparencies are full of texts and it made us boring. So I try not to put too many words on my transparency and use a few pictures and graphic organiser. I think my one transparency speak more words than those who have three or four transparencies but full of small printed texts. I feel that I am quite confident when I delivere my oral presentation as I am very familiar with my text. Some of my friends ask for my transparency for photocopy and I happily agree so. I think I have done a great job on my position paper but the grading depends on the lecturer and tutor. Sometimes, I have to accept the fact that though my friends enjoy my presentation, this does not mean that the lecturer will enjoy it too. So, it is better not to expect too high for grade, right?

Finally, I got back my fourth draft from Ms Dzeelfa’s comment with a “Do!”. This meant that my draft was accepted. However, I felt unsatisfied with my arguments. I think I wanted to add a line from the play “Oedipus the King” to support my argument on the Greek term hubris, that is, man’s arrogance. So I take out the old notes for the play and read the play all over again. At last, I found the lines on page 1406 and I added it to my position paper.

After showing my third draft, Ms. Dzeelfa rephrased my thesis statement to “Man’s Arrogance is the Cause of His Own Tragic Fall” Then, she cancelled a few paragraphs that are irrelevant to my issue. Originally, my paper got 1120 words, after the ommission, I got only 920 words. This time, I think I want to comment more about the Greek term hubris which is related to man’s arrogance, so I surfed internet for more information.

I showed my second draft to Ms. Dzeelfa, again she wanted me to discuss more on my issue and just focus on three supporting details. So, I have decided to relate man’s arrogance to human resource, knowledge and wisdom. I rewrite my draft, cancel unnecessary details and arrange my thesis statement around the three points. I rephrase my thesis statement to “Man’s Arrogance is His Own Tragic Fall for Disregarding God in ‘The Convergence of the Twain’ by Thomas Hardy”.

Since I have completed my first draft, I felt satisfied for finishing an assignment. Today, I showed it to Ms. Dzeelfa, I think I was the first person who have completed the first draft for position paper. Many of my classmates were still on the stage of writing thesis statement and supporting details.

When Ms. Dzeelfa read my draft, she commented I should not employ the point of view of Hardy for the whole paper. I should not say, “Hardy wrote…”, “Hardy suggests…”, “Hardy uses…” etc in my position paper. She said I should not analyse the poem per se but I should dwell on the issue I wanted to focus on.

Today, we also discussed a sample position paper written by our senior, Kastoori Bai. In her paper, she did comment on one issue in the short story “The Storm”, then eshe centered her points around that issue.

I think I have done wrong for my position paper. I should address my issue of man’s arrogance instead of analysing the poem stanza by stanza. Well, I have to redo my work!