One event that every student is familiar with is the first day of a new book in ELA class. I look at these days with a large amount of anxiety, as generally, I do not enjoy the books that are selected such as George Orwell’s “1984,” which is hailed by many as a literary masterpiece. However, I found the book to be overall confusing, and I struggled to truly comprehend the true meaning of the book as Orwell intended. What was intended to be a cautionary tale about surveillance and the importance of individuality is more of a confusing jumble of ideas that I only was able to piece together by looking up “Meaning of 1984” on Google before writing this. “1984” is a good example of the problem with the books that we read in ELA, and that is that many of them are hard to connect with. Very little of “1984″ can be directly applied to most students without a fair amount of analyzing the text, which takes time and can be frustrating. Not much of Winston Smith’s journey emulates basic life for a Kansas high schooler.
A book that does a better job of depicting teenage life and being relatable is the “Catcher in the Rye,” but it is also not without its faults. “Catcher in the Rye” has a much younger protagonist and so many of his experiences are more similar to current students, but the book still suffers from being set in the past. Many of Holden’s thoughts are relatable to a younger audience, but his actions are harder to relate to due to the new technology and ways of doing things. Overall, “Catcher in the Rye” is still fine as it is more relatable than 1984 and more grounded. Many of the experiences and emotional moments are made less impactful due to it being harder to picture myself in the character’s shoes.
A similar issue applies for “The House on Mango Street”. There were a few things that happened to the main character that I was able to relate to from my childhood, irrational fears, playing with friends and growing up with siblings, and those are the qualities that the book displays very well and that is how I related to it. However, the age gap is still an issue, with the main character in middle school. Much of the book revolves around her struggle to become more mature about the ways the world works.
Overall, many of the books that we read in ELA are able to accurately depict some things that students can relate to, but the books struggle to be more relevant to students in Kansas, and it causes me to become disengaged and disinterested with what I am reading.
