Daniel Hernandez

Tim Dalton

FIQWS AR2

11/25/18

Reflection

I have always known, reading to analyze in class and implement in own my works has not been my strongest attribute when it comes down to my English classes. Over the course of 12 weeks in my FIQWS-Architecture class, I have had the pleasure of reading very interesting texts and write up assignments correlated with these texts. Doing this has vastly improved my skills in analyzing readings for myself, for other classes and implementing them in my own works through the idea of intertextual couplings. When I think intertextual coupling in literature I imagine many links between two pieces of writing that make them very similar to one another as if you could couple them. In one of the earlier readings we did in class I found myself intertwined between the intertextual couplings of Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie and My Mother’s Garden by Kaitlyn Greenidge. I think what develops a reader and what is still developing my ability to analyze a reading is the intertextual coupling it has with one’s self. In other words, my ability to relate with the troubles and ideas of the protagonist in both these stories helped to understand the bigger picture behind the clever sentences. In using these links or intertextual couplings I had with the readings I uncovered the messages behind the writings, for Superman and Me it is, people are going to want to put you in a box of standards because of what you look like, don’t let them. For Kaitlyn Greenidge, the message is sometimes you will want to be someone you are not and later you are going to regret and wish you held on to who you were. Understanding this approach for understanding text by relating it to myself has developed my perspective as a reader.

One day I was told something along the lines of, writing down words relating to what you want to to express, develop the ideas you didn’t know you had. In one of our many free write we had in class we had to list three or more things that can be “makeover.” I listed many things but they were all closely related. I chose the idea of changing the way our government works because doing this would affect the lives of people I hold dear to my heart. My choice of a “makeover” then turned into a full fledged paragraph of anger. “The reason I believe the system should be renovated is because it is a system that was put in place more than 200 years ago, things change and people of the country demand different  things. Though it is called a democracy, it seems to work more like a closed club of wealthy people making decisions on the function of the government to benefit themselves.” As I wrote down these final sentences what was supposed to be a exercise to get the class going became a personal revelation on the status of our government system. I believe the choice of words and syntax of the sentences if read to an audience would clearly express my opposition of the current government system and passion for it’s renewal.

Considering the statement, language is “a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identify: It reveals the private identity, and connects with, or divorces one from, the larger, public of communal identity” (781) in context of the reading and writing we have done this semester, using language has been crucial for the expression of my views and opinions. Lately I have been trying to be more social, and to be social you have to connect and talk with people, along with talking I have observed certain things people might do to get their point across. These things people do to get their point across include the way they move their hands, use different tones, and facial expressions all serve to reveal something in the way they want it to be revealed. Much like the different tones and facial expressions we use, in writing we use certain words, pauses, sentences and punctuation to connect the reader with the idea we want to denote. Picking up on these elements in the writing of many of the texts we read in the semester allowed me to unlock the meaning of a sentence, paragraph and eventually text.