Honors humanities with Jessica McCallum has been a wonderful experience. For this project, we read four different books; The Stranger, Cat's Cradle, A Tale for theTime Being, and The Bluest Eye. For The Stranger by Albert Camus, I didn't actually complete a choice project. We read this book directly after I had returned from Ecuador, and was extremely busy catching up with all of my work from other classes, that I chose not to attempt a choice project. After reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut , I chose to write a poem for the choice project. For the book A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki, I chose to write another poem. For The Bluest Eye, written byToni Morrison, I chose to complete the Literary Analysis project.
Out of all of the books we read, A Tale from the Time Being, written by Ruth Ozeki, had the most impact on me, personally. This book is written from two points of view, one from Ruth, a middle aged woman, living in Canada, and the other from Nao, a young Japanese girl who had lived in California, and now in Japan. This book intales details from both lives, ones that evoke emotion, while connecting two completely different stories. I feel that this book was the best choice for me, during this time, as I learned about happiness and meaning. The struggles that the young girl is faced with, the connections that Ruth, can draw to the young girl from her everyday life, the emotion, the heart ache, the achievements, all brings me to the conclusion that I based my Final Project for this class off of. We live for the moments, the moments that show us, that life is beautiful.
Going into Honors this year, my only motivation, was to get it on my transcript. Now, I feel urged and motivated to pick up new books. I was never a reader, a lover of books, or anything close to that. The first book we read, The Stranger, I didn't actually read. Yes, in complete honesty, I listened to a book on tape, and still wasn't very intrigued. Our second book, Cat's Cradle, resonated a lot more with me. Reading about events in history that helped me dive deeper into something so curious to me, gave me so much motivation. By our third book, A Tale for the Time Being, I was hooked! I was so into this book, the story, the characters, everything. I am so glad that I chose to partake in Honors this semester, it has opened up a whole new world to me, actually, many new worlds, I could not be more grateful.