A Greater Understanding

History has always been one of my favorite subjects. But the thing about it is, we study it in terms of broad cause and effect rather than the little everyday things that show how the events of the time we're studying affected these people's lives. This is where historical fiction comes in. Especially with the Internet, it's easy to learn everything you'd ever want to know about, say, the Communist Revolution in China... except for how people felt about it. Historical fiction gives us this final piece of knowledge that allows us to fully understand what happened.

When we hear the word "communism" in America, the first few things that come to mind are the Cold War, nuclear war, violence, death, and, above all, the failure of an ideal system. We don't give a thought to those who were in this system, who were affected by its failure. With Sijie's book, we are given insight into a world that isn't given nearly as much depth and meaning in America as it should be. Regular teenagers can identify with the characters, and from there see themselves in this kind of world.

It goes back to the single story we learned about at the beginning of the year. We think of communist countries in similar terms to those of Africa, without contemplating the meaning and depth that the events of this society have on these people. By reading Balzac, we drop this single perception of communist China for a deeper understanding of how it affected regular people like Luo and the narrator. Not only do we have a greater cultural understanding, we have a greater empathy for these individuals.

This Isn't So Bad

I feel that I've improved as an English student over the course of the quarter. Getting back into the groove of school was definitely a challenge, considering that I was coming back from three months of summer. I know I didn't try as hard as I probably should have on my summer homework, but since then I've really tried to get my act together. What with rehearsal and everything else I've been doing, I've been kind of stressed out lately.

I really wasn't as prepared as I should have been for the academic jump from freshman to sophomore year. I heard about it several times from advisors and such, but I never lingered on it enough to fully grasp it. But I feel like I've gotten the hang of this, finally. I know now that I need to work on my close reading and narrow down my thesis statement. And I know I can do this.

Ideas, Conversation, and Progress

Restricting the right to read is such a foreign concept to me. For years, my parents have let me explore various different genres and ideas with not that much of a leash. I've certainly never known if  books were banned in my community.

But as I was researching for this blog, I noticed a few things. I had heard of a lot of books that were banned or challenged. Harry Potter. The Hunger Games. Captain Underpants, for crying out loud! If that's not age-appropriate I don't know what is.  I also noticed that black female authors that I had heard of, such as Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison, ended up on the list a few times. It made me wonder if they would have received the same kind of treatment if they were white males.

I think that books are definitely dangerous... to those in power. Books contain ideas that shape beliefs and sometimes even change lives. They can inspire people to do things that maybe they wouldn't do before. They can instill passion in someone who may have been afraid before. Banning books is keeping people weak, and in fear, and unable to think for themselves. A lot of these books were banned because they started conversations. But the thing is, if we are to progress as a society, we need to start conversations. About science, or about technology. About human rights. Anything that can help us become better. If we don't know or even attempt to understand others' perspectives, every step the human race takes forward will ultimately result in another two steps back.

Just the Way Things Are

I'd like to counter this idea that our generation is coddled with another thought. Recently, I read that most teenagers are more stressed than most adults. It's not hard for me to believe, talking with other students on campus. I asked a friend on Tuesday, on a scale of 1-10, how stressful was her week? Her answer? 500,009.

And it's not because kids today are incapable of comprehending failure. The same article that said that teenagers are more stressed than most adults also said that our generation is expected to perform at a higher level than the last.

In addition, social media leads to a lot of problems that the last generation didn't have to deal with, like cyberbullying. We are followed constantly by other people's opinions and thoughts, and we're influenced by them constantly.

So, in conclusion, we have problems to deal with too. We aren't coddled, we aren't overprotected. We're just people.