Category: Reader Response

And that’s all she wrote!

This is the final blog post of the semester; can you believe it? I can’t. With the exception of my Biography, this website is complete, and I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out.

I’ve worked harder this semester than any semester so far in college, and even though I don’t have that final grade yet, I’d like to think it paid off. These last few weeks have been some of the most stressful in recent memory, but with finals right on the horizon (two days away), the light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting brighter and brighter.

One week from today I will be stress-free, fully ready to get into the Christmas spirit.

Even though I’m very excited for English 305 to be done and over with, I’m aware that I will benefit greatly from having taken this class (as we’ve been told many times by Dr. Pennington). I have really developed my writing skills while learning so much about literature. Without this class, I don’t think I ever would’ve read The Awakening or “The Story of an Hour,” so if I could take just one thing from 305, it would be the wonderful works of Kate Chopin.

In the end, I decided to revise my New Historical essay one more time to be able to put it in my Presentation Portfolio. Because of this, I retired my Reader Response paper, forgoing any further revisions. I think it was important for me to put my New Historical essay in my final portfolio because it’s the essay that changed the most over the course of the revisions. It started off as my weakest paper, in my opinion, and became one of my strongest.

So the final four essays in my portfolio are my Close Reading, Psychoanalytic, Gender Studies, and New Historical. I feel very happy and proud of all of them and am really excited to share them.

Update on Tottenham for those of you who care: We put up a disgusting performance against Man. United at Old Trafford last Wednesday and lost 2-1. It was not a fun match to watch, as Dele was the only fairly respectable player on the pitch. Like, Dele is truly great, but he can’t win matches by himself.

BUT.

This morning, we absolutely crushed Burnley 5-0. Two goals from Harry Kane, one from Sonny (probably the best goal in the Premier League so far this season), one from Lucas, and one from Sissoko (GOAT) = a very happy Anna.

I don’t quite know how Mourihno has turned us around so entirely, but I hope he keeps it up because I’m liking what I’m seeing. Spurs are back to winning ways, and there’s nothing better.

Alright, that’s all from me! If you’ve read all my blog posts, I sincerely thank you for coming along on this journey with me. I hope you enjoy reading my final essays!

*This blog post contains gifs of Tottenham celebrations. Arsenal fans, please proceed with caution (#COYS)*

I’m going to talk about the Reader Response paper in a second, but first I need to happily rant about my favorite Premier League team, Tottenham Hotspur. As a consistent top-six finisher in the league, our start this season has been less than optimal, so much so that our manager, Mauricio Pochettino was fired almost two weeks ago.

When I heard this news, I was shocked. Genuinely. Poch led us to a Champions League final last year, and he’s been one of the best managers in the league. Why fire him just because we’re having an off season?

To be fair, our entire club was looking rough. Players weren’t playing their best because their contracts are almost up, and a change needed to be made. But me, along with others, were skeptical, especially when it was announced that Jose Mourinho would replace Poch. Yeah, yeah, he’s the “special one,” or whatever, but he just didn’t seem like the right choice.

BUT WAIT.

Since Mourinho has been manager, Spurs have gone 3-0. Let me repeat that: Since Mourinho has been manager, Spurs have gone 3-0. We finally got our first home win since January, and we look like a completely different team. Yes, we need to stop conceding goals in the closing minutes of matches, but things are looking up. As of today, we’re back to fifth place on the table, a huge jump from where we were when Mourinho took over.

Also, I can’t not talk about the fact that Mourinho pulled Dele Alli (this man ^^^) aside and asked him if he was Dele Alli or Dele Alli’s brother. When Dele said that he was Dele Alli, Mourinho replied, “Okay, well then play like Dele Alli.” Since then, Dele has been Man of the Match in each of our three wins. Unreal. No matter how the rest of the season goes, I will always be grateful to Mourinho for bringing Dele back to top form. If anything, this will all be great content for the Amazon documentary (still convinced that Daniel Levy fired Poch for this exact reason).

I would apologize for this rant that probably makes no sense to most of you, but nothing is making me happier right now than Tottenham, so I won’t. I’m honestly surprised it took me this long to talk about them.

Anyway, up the Spurs, and all that.

Okay, on to the actual topic of this blog post: the Reader Response essay. The comments I received on my essay from Dr. Pennington were pretty positive. He said that I need to contextualize some of my statements more and that I should quote more negative reviews of The Awakening. I’m still debating whether I want to put this essay in my portfolio, but that decision will determine whether I put this essay through another revision.

I’m certain I want to include my Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies essay in my final portfolio, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to include my Close Reading. The other three are kind of up in the air, but I should probably figure that out soon, considering we only have one week of class left.

I’m feeling really good, though! The website is coming together nicely, and as my other classes are starting to wrap up, I’m feeling less and less stressed.

One more week!

Here, have one more gif of Dele for good measure:

We’re getting down to the wire! I just finished the first draft of my Reader Response paper, and I feel so good.

Listen, listen, I’m about to go out on a limb here, but I think this could be my best essay yet? Maybe? I definitely had the most fun writing it, that’s for sure. All I can say is that I’m more confident handing in this essay than I’ve been all semester.

Because this is the last essay of the semester and because all my other essays are strong enough for portfolio consideration, I felt a lot less pressure writing this one than all the other ones.

When we went over Jauss and Reception Theory in class I immediately knew that I wanted to use it to write about The Awakening. All these ideas just started coming to me, and for the first time this semester, I didn’t have trouble finding things to research.

When I was researching for the New Historical essay, reading biographies about Kate Chopin, I was so interested in the fact that The Awakening was not well received initially after publication. I wanted to know why people didn’t like it at first and why it became popular again in the 60s, so I’m really happy that I got to explore that in this paper. It really made me realize how huge of a role society plays in the success and failure of a literary work.

Anyway, the semester is almost over, and I can’t wait to be done. This semester has been the most impactful semester of my college career so far, but I want it to be over.

Alas, it isn’t over until it’s over, and there’s still work to be done. I can’t give up yet! We’re almost there, 305ers, you can do this.