American high school literature

[Thingol]

Spoilers at will henceforth…

Thank you, Legolamb, for mentioning Simon, one of my favorite characters in Brit Lit. Not because he’s deep – we never get to know him that well – but because he’s so sympathetic and compelling, and his tragedy is so human.

As someone who’s taught this, let me add here that high school kids eat this stuff up! As a group, they’re a really morbid bunch. Give them a happy story, and they mock it to pieces.

Also, it’s hard to find gripping, moving literature which does not explore the dark side of the human situation. Catch-22, as mentioned above, is hilarious. But in the latter half, it suddenly takes a sinister left turn (apo for the redund) and you realize what you’ve been laughing at. And that’s what gives power to its humor.

Huck Finn, also mentioned, is a riot. It even has a pollyanna ending! As soon as Tom shows up, we’re off to fantasyland. Twain’s Roughing It and certain other tomes are a laugh-a-minute, and aren’t nearly as dark as, say, Letters from Earth, but have never had the magnetism of Finn, probably in part because they blunt the dark edge somewhat more.

Gatsby is fall-out-of-your-chair funny, as is “Metamorphosis”.

But the Shakespeare comedies (up cit) are probably your best bet. Unfortunately, the language is 400 years old, so most of the puns are lost on the students… and they’re so full of cliches!

Sadly, some of the best candidates have fallen out of the curriculum, e.g. Ben Franklin, who is both hopeful and hilarious. I’d like to see James Thurber given his due.

Then, too, since the 1950’s, moreso in the 60’s, and perhaps peaking in the 90’s, the trend toward broadening the canon has brought many voices from the margin toward the center. Not surprisingly, most of these voices have a well-earned cynical, sometimes even violent or crazed, undertone, which contributes to their incisiveness and impact.

Hey, like Townes Van Zandt once said, “There’s the blues… and there’s Zipadee-do-dah.”

[Zoe]

She was struggling with depression, and I asked if perhaps she could read Little Women or Winnie the Pooh or Sherlock Holmes or Merchant of Venice. But, no, it had to be Edgar A. Poe, Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet (among others).

I have struggled with depression since high school myself. Tragedy should provide catharisis and not remain depressing. It should normally help to relieve anxiety.

I adored Little Women, but have you forgotten some of the more depressing aspects of that book? Beth’s death and Jo’s lonliness?. Of course there are things to be learned from Winnie the Pooh and many other children’s books, but they are not appropriate for your daughter’s grade level. The Sherlock Holmes canon is superb, but short stories cannot substitute for a play or a novel. If she’s reading Poe, then she is likely to be taking a class in American Literature. He can be postponed, but not overlooked if she is to have an appropriate education. She shouldn’t be having to spend much time reading Poe anyway since he didn’t write plays or novels.

If your daughter has been struggling with depression that is this deep for more than two weeks, I urge you to consult a physician.

[Kaitlyn]

@Legolamb

I would count Simon as an important character too and, other than the sow, his is the first death to show just how far into savagery Jack and the tribe have descended. Otherwise your correction is true - I think the only other boy to die was the unnamed one who first claimed to have seen the beastie, and we never saw it happen.

I see your point, but I still disagree. Simon’s death is an important plot development for just the reason you give, but Simon himself isn’t a major character in the story at any point, unlike Jack, Ralph, and Piggy.

as_u_wish: There’s no reason why students cannot and should not find and read books such as you suggest on their own. Indeed, every reading teacher I know encourages students to spend at least a little time on self-selected recreational reading. Escapism has its place. Lit class, however, isn’t necessarily that place. The reading teacher’s job is to help students understand how to plumb the depths of great writing, to dig into them to find what’s beneath the surface and understand why it works as it does. This can’t be done if there’s nothing to dig for.

[Fern_Forest]

The only book I ever hated in High School which I had to read was Oliver Twist. After suffering through a few days of that my dad gave me the go ahead to fake it.

I also read The Hobbit, Paradise Lost, Animal Farm, 1984, a couple Shakespeares, Genesis from the Bible as well as quite a bunch of local stories mostly written in pidgin and some Asian literature. I’d say the stories we read were about half/half with your theory even though the books I remember may not match that amount.

[Rilchiam]

Hey, I’ve said it a zillion times: Catcher in the Rye is funny; Holden’s not a hero; you’re not supposed to think he’s deep or pattern your worldview after his. The scenes with the cab driver, talking about the ducks and the fish, and the one in the bar with Luce, have me ROFL every time.

But nobody listens…