Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Thoreau vs Crane




For my Thoreau vs. Crane essay I demonstrated that Henry David Thoreau author of Walden and Henry Crane author of Maggie: a Girl of the Streets convey similar tones towards themes of materialism and possessions; however they convey contrasting attitudes towards the influence of someone’s surroundings on their life (fate vs choice) and the theme of self reliance. Although I the paper was enough to earn an A I turned it in Late and therefore my letter grade dropped to a B. This was a valuable lesson to me that Turning in work on time is as important if not more important than having a good product. In the future in whatever work that I do I realize it will be essential for me to meet my deadlines and the punishment for not doing this could be much more severe than a drop in a letter grade.


Walden was a very challenging book to comprehend and I found myself rereading a page multiple times to fully understand Thoreau’s meaning. Completing it however, was extremely helpful. This assignment helped me to think critically about what I am reading probably more than anything I had done previously. The ability to pull themes out from what I am reading is a crucial skill especially in the CAP program where many of our assignments focus on the theme of a text or other media forms. This will help me later in life, not only when doing other assignments but whenever I might be analyzing a book that I am reading.

Before completing this assignment I was unsure of myself when it came to identifying themes in what I read. I felt overwhelmed upon entering this program because I felt that I did not develop this skill in middle school. Now I am much more confident in my ability to find themes in readings and compare different works.


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