Garp and other things

The AP Lit school year is wrapping up, and there are just a few loose strings to tie up before we are finished.

I would like to start my blog by thanking Mrs. Clinch for nominating me for an AP Lit honors night award. I enjoy your class very much and think you are one of the most amazing teachers I have ever had so the nomination means a lot to me.

I also would like to say that I am enjoying Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead very much. A few scenes drag on, but I enjoy the humor as well as the attempt to connect the play back to Hamlet. The author does a clever job of playing off of Hamlet's wording and incorporating important thematic questions into the dialogue.

Despite my appreciation of the play, it does seem odd that we are reading it now. I don't think it appears very often on the AP Literature open question, and because we are so busy, it would seem more appropriate to save the play until after the testing, when we have time to relax. Right now, it would be helpful to have a few days in class to work on our review packets and read our lit circle books. It is also a little stressful that the lit circles are right before AP testing as well. Again, it would be much nicer to do this after testing simply because I doubt I will use Garp (even though I love it) on the open question, and we are so busy preparing for this exam and our other ap exams, that attempting to finish a novel amidst all of our review activities seems a little excessive.

Furthermore, I am a little frustrated that we have an allusion test in the middle of AP testing week. I know I and many other students will not be there many mornings because of testing. In fact, I have a test every morning next week except for Thursday or Friday morning, which means, by the time I make up the allusion test, the AP exam will have passed and the review will be slightly unnecessary. Thus, I think the test is a little superfluous and just extra stress when many of us want to focus more on the actual AP lit exam.

Despite my complaining, I am still enjoying The World According to Garp which I am attempting to finish in my little spare time. Helen is an interesting character to me. She always seemed incredibly loyal and intelligent, and yet she betrays Garp in her affair with Michael Milton. The affair seems odd considering Michael is so arrogant, a usual sign of insecurities. Furthermore, Helen consistently expresses love for her husband, so why would she seek shelter in another man’s arms? Her motives seem blurry. Also, how does Garp court Helen through her writing and why does he seem stuck in an artistic rut? While the book is so straight forward, it is often times hard to understand the motives behind characters actions, a mystery that adds substance to the novel.