Looking back on how I started out this class is a bit odd. The oddity comes from how differently I write and think now compared to the beginning. In the beginning I took the class simply because my preceptor picked it and I did not mind reading. I was not thrilled about interpreting literature because I felt it was just academically accepted navel-gazing. Having two teachers that were both engaged in teaching and engaging to listen to helped to show me literary interpretation was serious academic work. I high school made me a bit cynical due to lackluster teachers. I am quite glad I am not the same person I started out as because had I stubbornly held on to my initial opinion I would have passed up the opportunities for growth I had taken. …show more content…
I liked analyzing Mama Yaya because I love mentor characters. I have always wanted to be like that archetype because these characters are so wise, calm and respectable which I have always loved more than the protagonists despite the protagonists typically being more youthful and energetic. I feel the shining part of this paper is the use of textual support. Usually when I am incorporating quotes or paraphrasing I always feel I used too much of the book and too little of my own thoughts or the reverse. However, this Novel Analysis was a completely different experience where I felt I effectively used textual support. Most likely this is because this is the last paper and I had two papers as experience going in. This gave me the perspective that textual evidence is not something you measure against original thoughts, but just a tool used in service of the argument. Thinking about it as a means to an end rather than a means to itself allowed me not to worry endlessly on a single component and keep the central point firmly in my mind. I am aware you asked if there was a component to Mama Yaya that “we don't already know” and I am sure there is. I only addressed the comment on family being more than biological because I felt finding something that was not already known required to different a thesis and I wished to strengthen the central idea I had as opposed to possibly getting a new